Christmas Carbon Monoxide Deaths Again
The specter of Christmas Carbon Monoxide Deaths struck again this year.
EMT’s should not be part of the holidays but once again we must blog about The specter of Christmas Carbon Monoxide Deaths. Today, it is deadly poisonings in New Hampshire and Illinois.
Every year the on 26th of December, we get word of another bad carbon monoxide poisoning that happened over the holiday. This year was no exception.
In Edgar Illinois, a man and his dog were found dead. According to WAND TV:
A caller said she had been unable to reach her brother by phone all day and was worried. She requested a wellness check.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His German Shepherd dog was also found dead in the home.
The coroner requested the Brocton Fire Department be dispatched to the scene to test for the presence of carbon monoxide. Testing found the presence of fatal levels of carbon monoxide inside the home.
Police were called to the house in the town of Wakefield around 4:20 p.m. for a welfare check, said New Hampshire State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey.
Toomey told television station WMUR the deceased included two older adults and two younger adults, and that other family members had called police to check on them after they did not show up as expected at a Christmas Day gathering.
The investigation is focusing around a heating system failure.
As we look back at the last few years, we aren’t sure is there are actually more poisonings on Christmas or if the poisonings just are considered more news worthy this time of year. Clearly, as December is the first real month of winter, the chance of CO poisonings does go up. In the Midwest, the last couple of weeks reflect as cold of weather as we have seen in all of 2024, as last winter was quite mild. Ice and snow increase the risk factors as poorly maintained heating systems can fail with that extra load upon them.
Previous Christmas Carbon Monoxide Events
A review of the last few holiday seasons shows other severe incidents. Last year there was a family in Anchorage, Alaska that had their holiday ruined. Click here for the blog we wrote about it then.
In 2022, four Chicagoans were hospitalized just before Christmas. https://carbonmonoxide.com/2022/12/chicagoans-hospitalized-for-carbon-monoxide-poisoning.html All CO cases are preventable so as we head in to the new year, call your HVAC contractor to do maintenance on your furnace or boiler.
Buy your family a special Christmas gift, a present that can save their lives and their brains: a 10 year battery, combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, like this one, Make sure New Year’s Eve is a happy one.
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