Carbon Monoxide

A retired couple found dead in their home this week were the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials with the Shasta County coroner's office said Friday. Bob and Gayle Adams and their five pets were found by a family member Wednesday. They appeared to have been overcome by exhaust fumes from a generator used to supply electricity to their home, said John Zufall, deputy coroner for Shasta County.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission today will announce a voluntary recall of 1 million home carbon monoxide detectors because they go off too late or not at all. The CPSC probe was hastened by findings in recent studies that a surprisingly large number of faulty alarms are being sold to consumers. The recall affects two brands made by Kidde Safety Co., the nation's largest manufacturer of carbon monoxide alarms.

The gas that killed one worker and injured nearly two dozen other employees at a Covina demolition site Wednesday was carbon monoxide, apparently produced by a smoldering fire. Investigators have not arrived at an official conclusion, but Covina Police Lt. Dave Miles said Thursday that the information gathered so far points to a hidden pit fire as the source of the carbon monoxide that poisoned Jesus Garcia Alvarez, 39, of Long Beach.

Carbon monoxide leaked into a Roanoke College dormitory early Friday, sickening more than 100 teens and adults attending summer programs. One man was found dead. People staying in the dorm contacted campus police, and one woman later described the scene inside as chaotic. "One woman fell on the floor in the bathroom," said Annabelle Minter, 80, of Richmond. Minter said she also felt "on the dizzy side" and was taken to a hospital, but her roommate was sicker. Walter J.

Two young children were found dead Sunday in the back of their parents' pickup -- apparent victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, authorities said. The children, ages 1 and 5, along with a 10-year-old sibling, were sitting in a camper that covered the bed of the truck while their parents drove from their Mojave home to a jail facility about 50 miles away. When they arrived, the parents opened the camper and found the children unresponsive, the Kern County Sheriff's Department said.

Two boys and a girl died Tuesday, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning, while exploring caves near the Mississippi River, authorities said. Two other boys were hospitalized. The five teenagers had entered a complex known as the Wabasha Street caves Tuesday afternoon, District Fire Chief Martin Ludden said. They were not immediately identified. One boy managed to get out of the caves and directed rescue workers to his friends, about 600 feet into the caves.

Carbon monoxide spewing from a pump on the bottom of a remote desert mine shaft in Blythe apparently killed three miners, officials reported. According to Riverside County Sheriff's Sgt. Denver Pittman, the men were pronounced dead after a rescue team was summoned by the father of one of the victims.

Carbon monoxide fumes killed a hotel guest and sickened four others Friday after a construction canopy blocked venting from the building's water heaters, officials said. Levels of the poisonous, odorless gas were so high that rescuers were forced to retreat until the Best Western Allentown Inn & Suites could be ventilated. The dead hotel guest was identified by the coroner's office as Philip D. Prechtel, 63, of Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Carbon monoxide is produced by burning any fuel. Therefore, any fuel-burning appliance in your home is a potential CO source. When appliances are kept in good working condition, they produce little carbon monoxide. Improperly operating appliances can produce fatal concentrations in your home. Likewise, using charcoal indoors or running a car in a garage can cause CO poisoning. SYMPTOMS OF CO POISONING The initial symptoms of CO poisoning are similar to the flu (but without the fever).

Three workers killed in a Ventura County oil rig accident last week died after inhaling toxic levels of carbon monoxide gas, the Ventura County coroner's office said Friday. Investigators originally suspected that the workers were killed by breathing lethal doses of hydrogen sulfide, a colorless gas sometimes found in oil fields.