Sunday, January 20, 2008

By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer

Around 5 a.m. on Thursday, 30-year-old Joey Greer of Fieldale was watching television for a few minutes before he was to leave for work. His wife, Lisa, 29, and their two children — Taylor, 7, and Breanna, 20 months — were asleep.

Suddenly, their newly installed carbon monoxide detector began to blare a loud, constant beeping. An indicator on the alarm indicated “evacuate” because of dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide in the home.

Within about five minutes, the Greers got dressed and ran outside into the snow and sleet. Greer said everyone was fine emotionally, although Taylor was a bit dazed from having been waken up so suddenly.

The detector had been installed only three days before through a Henry County Public Safety program.

The Greers said that after they heard the alarm they smelled soot, but they had smelled nothing before that. Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, tasteless and colorless gas.

After the family was outside the house, Joey Greer drove his wife and children to her mother’s house in Fieldale. He returned to the eight-room wood-frame house they rent on Dillons Fork Road. He turned off the furnace, opened windows inside the house and vents underneath the house near the furnace.

He said he figured that there may be a leak in a pipe to the furnace, and he called a friend of his who works with air conditioning for advice on repairs.

After the house aired out for about three hours, Greer began to replace some pipe to the furnace. Friday, he showed one section of pipe with holes, which he speculated may have been caused by age and which may have been the source of the carbon monoxide leak.

Greer worked off and on replacing some sections of pipe to the furnace for nearly five hours, and he got nauseous at times, he said. He finished the work by early afternoon, turned the furnace back on and let it run for 30-60 minutes to make sure it was operating properly, he said.

About 2:30 p.m., Greer called Henry County Public Safety, reported what had happened and told Assistant Fire Marshal Lisa Garrett the level of carbon monoxide that the detector indicated in the house.

By that time, Greer said, the level was zero and Garrett told him the house was safe to reoccupy. The detector level had gotten as high at 108 when the alarm sounded. The detector registers up to 400, he said.

Lisa Greer and the children returned home late Thursday afternoon.

The Greers said they felt fortunate that no one in the family got sick or worse and fortunate that a carbon monoxide detector had been installed in their home just three days before.

According to information from Henry County Public Safety, symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can include headaches; irregular breathing; dizziness; blurred vision; confusion, memory loss, loss of coordination; feeling ill/tired at home but fine when away from home; nausea, vomiting; rapid heartbeat; fatigue, not feeling rested after sleep; weakness; loss of consciousness, coma; eventually, seizures, respiratory failure, cardiac arrest. Symptoms may be similar to flulike symptoms and therefore may be misdiagnosed.

Lisa Greer said all the members of the family were having bad headaches, which she had heard was a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning. Unsure of whom to contact, the family spoke to a relative who in turn contacted Henry County Public Safety last Monday.

That agency sent a representative to the home the same day, installed a carbon monoxide detector at no charge to the Greers, checked the home for carbon monoxide and found no problem, she said.

Lisa Greer said the carbon monoxide incident “could have potentially made us all very sick and potentially hurt” Breanna, the 20-month-old.

Garrett said carbon monoxide tends to affect young children, older people and those with breathing problems first.

The Greers said there were several smoke detectors in the home but no carbon monoxide detector until last week. Lisa Greer urges every family to get one, even if it is at its own expense.

Carbon monoxide is “something you don’t even know” is there, she said.