Carbon monoxide poisoning: Stopping 'the invisible killer'

File photo: Kendra Platt (rear) and her boyfriend, Steve Roberts, recovered from severe carbon monoxide poisoning after undergoing treatment in hyperbaric chambers in November 2015. (Courtesy of Kendra Platt)

By Nuran Alteir | The Oregonian/OregonLive 

It's the time of year when people unknowingly take risks to stay warm, turning to heat generators and fireplaces that could open them up to a deadly threat: carbon monoxide.

Dubbed the invisible killer, carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that can poison a person. It can cause confusion, dull headache, nausea or vomiting, and shortness of breath before shutting the body down.

"It's sometimes too late before people will notice," said firefighter Jesse Altieg, a spokesperson  for Portland Fire & Rescue. That's why it's so important to have a carbon monoxide alarm in the home, he said. "With a CO detector you're alerted something is going on."

This winter, Portland Fire & Rescue will give out 250 carbon monoxide detectors to community members, thanks to a donation from FirstAlert.

The giveaway is timely not only because of the power outages that came with this week's storms, but also because it comes at the approaching five-year anniversary of an Oregon law that requires renters to install working carbon monoxide alarms inside homes and apartments. 

FirstAlert donated the alarms with seven-year lifespans and battery backup to the Friends of Portland Fire & Rescue Foundation to help fire experts educate people about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

"You'll see around the country, when there's power outages, people turn to dangerous alternative methods of cooking, heating and lighting," said Gigi Lubin, spokeswoman for FirstAlert. Every year, "there's always some carbon monoxide incident in the home. Sometimes it's tragic; sometimes there's an alarm."

More than 400 people die each year in the U.S. from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning not linked to fires, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 20,000 end up in the emergency room, and more than 4,000 are hospitalized, the agency said.

There are numerous accounts of families barely making it out of a home alive after a leak in The Oregonian/OregonLive's archives. Just two weeks ago, Canby firefighters rescued two people and a cat suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a malfunctioning propane furnace. 

"There's usually an uptick [in carbon monoxide related calls] when the weather is cold," Altieg said. That's because people use "improvised ways of heating" like generators and fireplaces.

Since Jan. 1, Portland Fire & Rescue has responded to 240 calls related to carbon monoxide - 79 of which came after Sept. 1. Altieg cautioned against reading too much into those numbers, as some of those calls may have been false alarms. 

Just this week, a Southeast Portland family had a fire going and put out the fire before going to bed, Altieg said. The winds, however, didn't allow the fire to properly vent out of the chimney and increased the CO levels inside the home. 

"They noticed they were feeling dizzy, and they called 911," Altieg said.

In 2008, a family of four vacationing in Aspen, Colorado, was not as lucky. They died after a leak from the heating and snow melting system filled the home with the poisonous gas. The death of the Lofgren family, along with the 2002 death of Kara Zander in Beaverton, drove the passage of the Lofgren and Zander Memorial Act through the Oregon Legislature in 2009. The law took effect in 2010. Washington passed its own law requiring all residences have carbon monoxide alarms in 2012. 

Portland Fire & Rescue has not yet decided how the carbon monoxide detectors will be distributed.

- Nuran Alteir