By Patrick Cloonan
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — A West Mifflin couple in their 60s is hospitalized after a leaky boiler sent high levels of carbon monoxide into their house.
A supervisor at UPMC Presbyterian said Kenneth and Betty Ann Schwab were reported to be in stable condition Friday evening, after being taken there by Baldwin EMS from their home along the 4000 block of Kennywood Boulevard.
Homeville Volunteer Fire Co. Second Assistant Chief Adam Hood said firefighters and Equitable Gas Co. crews were called there after Baldwin EMS responded Friday at around 9:50 a.m.
Baldwin EMS Assistant Chief Todd Plunkett said paramedics were sent by Allegheny County emergency management after a dispatcher received a 911 call.
Hood said paramedics told him the call was about “two people with flu-like symptoms,” a sign of carbon monoxide.
“We transported two individuals,” Plunkett confirmed. Hood said paramedics told him the couple had been treated on the back porch of their home.
“He was very disoriented,” Hood said of the husband, who reportedly made the 911 call. The wife had been unconscious but “when they gave her oxygen she came to.”
There was a lot of carbon monoxide in the home. High levels were picked up on meters taken into the home by the paramedics.
“We had a crew go in there with our meters,” Hood said.
“As soon as they got into the home the readings were in the 600 (parts per million) range. When they got to the basement, the meters only go up to 999 and they were maxed out, meaning the readings were over 1,000 (ppm).”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said average levels in homes without gas stoves may reach 5 ppm, while levels near properly adjusted stoves may reach 15 ppm.
It regards 50 ppm as the maximum permissible exposure level for an eight-hour period, while the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends an exposure no greater than 35 ppm.
“The gas company crew pinpointed (the leak) in the boiler,” Hood said.
The assistant chief said the Equitable crew shut gas off to the home until firefighters could air it out.
“They turned the gas back on after the ventilation,” Hood said.
The Allegheny County Health Department tracks carbon monoxide cases, though it usually doesn’t get involved unless it’s dealing with a rental property.
“Quite simply, carbon monoxide prevents oxygen from being used by your body,” the Allegheny County Health Department said in a fact sheet at its www.achd.net website.
While that fact sheet urged readers to “always check with your doctor,” it said common symptoms associated with carbon monoxide include headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea, rapid heartbeat, seizures, cardiac arrest, loss of hearing, vomiting, disorientation, loss of consciousness, coma and respiratory failure.
“First and foremost people should get their furnaces checked,” ACHD spokesman Dave Zazac said.
“They should have their hot water heaters checked. They should have their fuel burning appliances checked, by a certified professional.”
Zazac said the total number of cases involving carbon monoxide, including accidents and fires, is 53 for this year in Allegheny County, the same as for all of 2010. The number of fatalities is down from 5 to 2.
Last year’s fatalities include a 60-year-old McKeesport man and his 19-year-old daughter. Authorities said they tried to use a generator at the height of the early February 2010 storm that dumped up to 2 feet of snow on the area.
This year’s fatalities include the two North Versailles Township boys fatally injured in an apartment fire.
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