Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Following at least two gas-related incidents at Broward County schools in as many weeks, the district’s superintendent called for carbon monoxide detectors to be installed at every campus.
“We also discovered that we don’t have carbon monoxide detectors in our kitchens and in our cafeterias,” Superintendent Howard Hepburn told local news reporters Tuesday.
The call for the installation of detectors comes after Cypress Bay High School was evacuated for a carbon monoxide leak in the school’s cafeteria that caused an evacuation and the hospitalization of at least five people Friday. None of the five people who required medical attention were students, the school district previously told local news outlets.
Monday at Oriole Elementary School, one school district employee was taken to the hospital for treatment after a propane gas leak. This leak also occurred inside the school’s cafeteria.
State law stipulates that buildings constructed after July 1, 2008, must have at least one carbon monoxide detector. Hepburn told reporters from Local 10 news that there are no codes or laws requiring them in Broward schools.
Construction on Cypress Bay High School, the school where the carbon monoxide leak took place, was completed in 2002. Oriole Elementary School is estimated to have been built in the 1970s.
What Does the Law Say?
Leesfield & Partners’ Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, was instrumental in the passage of Florida’s carbon monoxide law. This law outlines protections and requirements for carbon monoxide detectors as a way to safeguard against injury and death related to exposure to the gas in homes and public lodging places such as hotels. The law states that any new build or addition built after July 1, 2008, must have at least one carbon monoxide detector installed within 10 feet of every sleeping room. These detectors can be hard-wired or battery-powered alarms or a hard-wired or battery-powered combination of carbon monoxide and smoke alarms.
Carbon monoxide detectors can save thousands of lives each year. In data from the Centers for Disease Control, it is estimated that about 400 Americans die every year due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning and 20,000 are reported to be taken to hospitals all over the country for treatment of exposure to the dangerous gas.
Currently, only five states require carbon monoxide detectors in all schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Different Kinds of Detectors
Commercial carbon monoxide detectors are estimated to cover anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet while an average home’s carbon monoxide detector can alert a homeowner to a leak anywhere between 5 and 20 feet away. Cypress Bay High School is one the largest public high schools in the state, measuring 1,883 square feet. The square footage for the elementary school at the center of Monday’s gas leak was not immediately available Wednesday.
Information about why the schools did not already have these alarms in place in cafeterias, whether there were alarms in other parts of the schools, or what kind of detectors they would use was not immediately available Wednesday. School officials released no cost estimate or timeline for the installation of the detectors. Still, Hepburn did tell reporters that he would be taking the installation proposal to the school board where they would then need to get estimates and bids to begin the process of putting detectors in all district kitchens and cafeterias.
Our History with Carbon Monoxide Cases
Preceding the passing of Florida’s carbon monoxide laws, Leesfield & Partners previously represented a family on vacation in Key West from Iowa exposed to carbon monoxide gas leaking into their room from a faulty boiler room roof vent damaged during Hurricane Wilma. At least two others were also injured from carbon monoxide exposure at the same hotel. It was discovered that the hotel failed to have a licensed technician come out to the property to inspect and repair the damage, leaving their guests vulnerable to exposure.
Leesfield & Partners represented a couple vacationing in a foreign country who were exposed to the lethal gas. Attorneys with the firm secured an eight-figure settlement on behalf of the couple in that case.
The firm also represented a young girl visiting university students and staying in off-campus housing owned by the school when she was exposed to carbon monoxide as she slept. The girl was found unresponsive in her bed and taken the the hospital. The cause of the leak allowing carbon monoxide to build up inside the house was a faulty exhaust pipe for a gas furnace in the house.
A confidential settlement was reached for the client in that case.
Another case handled by the law firm resulted in $11,750,000 on behalf of a woman injured from carbon monoxide poisoning at a resort.
