(Spirit Lake)– A reminder to check the exhaust vents on the outside of your house. Spirit Lake Fire Chief Pat Daly tells KUOO news a call they had this (Wed.) morning emphasizes the importance of that…
“We got a call early this morning to East Okoboji Beach. Three people with carbon monoxide. We got there and all the exhausts were froze over. They did transport three to the hospital on that call.”
Daly says very high levels of carbon monoxide were detected in the house, especially near the furnace. He adds carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, making it vital that you have a detector in your house…
“That’s one thing that everybody needs around this area is to get a CO detector. Some of them plug in, some of them are batteries. Make sure that they’re not 10 years old. If they’re 10 years old discard them and get a new one. Make sure your batteries are up to date in them.”
Daly outlines some of the symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure…
“You’re tired, you can’t wake people up, they’re disoriented, things like that. Things that shouldn’t be happening are happening.”
At that point he says it’s time to take immediate action…
“Get out and get some fresh air, that’s the best thing. That takes care of some of the problems, but most of the time if you’re in there and you’re sick and headaches, then you need to go to the hospital and they’ll do some treatments for you.”
Daly says It’s also important to call 911 so the proper crews can respond to identify and remedy the problem.
He says they’ve responded to several calls in recent days of reports of gas odor in homes but he says the call this morning was much more serious.
