Stamford Firefighters Credit Carbon Monoxide Detector Alarm for Saving Lives

With the start of Eastern Standard Time Sunday, it’s a good time to change the batteries of your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Carbon monoxide detectors are being credited for sounding the alarm last week at a Bridge Street apartment complex where Stamford Firefighters found “extraordinary amounts of the lethal gas” in an apartment.

It was on Oct. 27 when firefighters from the from the Woodside Fire Station, Engine Company 5, responded to 293 Bridge St. for a carbon monoxide alarm investigation. Firefighters tested the air in the attached residential apartment complex and found extraordinary amounts of the lethal gas in the apartment.

Additional fire apparatus from the Woodside, Westside and Central Fire stations were dispatched to search for and evacuate distressed occupants in the complex. The firefighters wore self-contained breathing apparatus to aid their searches due to the abnormally high levels of the carbon monoxide gas migrating into neighboring apartments.

A total of five apartments were searched. All residents were accounted for and no medical attention was required.

The source of the carbon monoxide leak was due to a faulty heating appliance. The fuel and electrical power was removed from the appliance.

The affected apartments were ventilated of the deadly gas using high powered fans and the atmosphere was retested for traces of carbon monoxide which returned to normal levels, according to the fire department.

The Stamford Fire Department is reminding all residents that carbon monoxide is an odorless, tasteless and colorless gas. A carbon monoxide alarm should be installed in a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, immediately exit the home to a fresh air location, account for all occupants in the home and call the Fire Department from a fresh air location or a neighbor’s home.

If you are in need of smoke or carbon monoxide detector, please contact information@stamfordfiresafetyfoundation.org.