PSA—Emergency in the Condo

I’m gonna tell you something that might save your life.

Dateline: Friday, December 27. Two days after Christmas and it started like any other day. TW was still sickie but her coughing had let up some. She dragged herself out of bed and went over to the computer to help me answer e-mail and visit my furrends. I was in my mauve thing, sleeping dictating to her. Suddenly, some terribly loud beeping caught our attention. TW jumped up. This wasn’t the neighbor’s beeping. This was OUR beeping.

She ran the three steps to look at the carbon monoxide detector, which was sounding loudly. 54. She was still in her pj’s so she ran to jump into some clothes. She struggled into some pants and looked at the still beeping CO detector. 58. She quickly turned off the thermostat so the heat would turn off, opened the windows some, locked her bedroom door, called the front desk and then dialed 911. I was right next to her. I knew she needed a steady paw to relax her. Although she was shaking on the outside, she was cool and calm on the inside like she knew just what to do. Since she didn’t know where PSEG’s phone number was, she knew it was a good bet to call the fire department.

911: What's the emergency?
TW: My CO detector is beeping. It’s reading 58.
The operator read our address to her and axed if she was feeling faint or lightheaded. (Bad question cos TW is always faint and lightheaded.) Can you stay on the line for a minute while I alert the fire department?
TW: Yes.
She heard the operator give FD our address.
911: If you feel like you’re in danger, leave the apartment.

TW looked at the reading. 40. She stayed behind to call Pop. She told him she couldn’t leave me behind. Tears are beginning to form in the kitteh’s eyes. Did she really say that?

Pop told her to try to get me into the PTU but I wasn’t having any of it. I couldn’t get into my office since she locked the door so I stayed with her. What she did next will leave you dazed and stunned.

SHE PICKED UP THE WRAPPING PAPER. ALL OF IT!! MY WRAPPING PAPER!

SOB SOB!

She said she couldn’t have people coming in to see all that paper on the floor. As she finally got her jacket and headed out the door, she met the firemen coming up the elevator. They were quick. She barely hung up the phone and she heard the sirens.

When the barrage of men baring 40 lbs of apparatus came bursting in, I pried Pop’s closet open and jumped inside.

Yep, they got a reading all right. The reading was high in the furnace room and even by the stove. TW stayed outside the door in the hallway. The new Super showed up and he came in. The firemen turned off the gas and opened the windows as far as they’d go. TW didn’t know where I was and kept telling the firemen not to let me out. They wanted to leave the door wide open to cross-ventilate with the open hall windows. She went inside to look for me. When she realized where I was, she closed Pop’s door and then let them leave the apartment door open, knowing I couldn’t get out.

The firemen were thorough and checked levels in other apartments on our floor. The apartment next door where they have the newborn baby had a reading of 19. My question is: why didn’t they have a CO detector in there?

They checked the apartments below us. Since CO rises, they wanted to see where it was coming from. The apartment right beneath us had a reading over 90. Why didn’t they have a CO detector? Don’t people realize CO is deadly?

TW was out in the hall chatting up the Super and the firemen while they waited forever for Public Service Electric & Gas to arrive on the scene. She make stupid jokes like she’d offer them tea but her gas had been shut off. A couple of times she remembered she had a cat and came in to check on me. Once, she even brought me my kibble since I was now out of hiding. Hours later, the gas man came upstairs. He was in our apartment about 1 minute. He saw the levels were 0 so he turned on the gas and left.

It wasn’t over. TW heard the hum of the hot water heater but the furnace never turned back on. Another call to the Super, who came up and discovered PSEG turned the furnace back on but never turned the gas on. Duh! Bob—they’re on a first-name basis now–stayed until the heat went on to make sure everything was OK. He told her, he was going to put a fan in the chimney so a back draft couldn’t blow the CO back into the apartment. We heard him on the roof later so we know he kept his word.

To this kitteh, it seemed like TW was out in the hall hours—days even—but she says it was about 2 hours.

PSA: Carbon monoxide detectors save lives. If you don’t have one, you need to get one and keep a fresh battery in it. If you have one over 5 years old, it needs to be replaced because the sensor wears out. We have a Kidde model like the one in the photo on the right. TW and I might not be here to post this if we didn’t have one.

NOTE: Carbon monoxide is a by-product of combustion, present whenever fuel is burned. It is produced by common home appliances, such as gas or oil furnaces, gas refrigerators, gas clothes dryers, gas ranges, gas water heaters or space heaters, fireplaces, charcoal grills, and wood burning stoves. Fumes from automobiles and gas-powered lawn mowers also contain carbon monoxide and can enter a home through walls or doorways if an engine is left running in an attached garage.