Carbon Monoxide

Published on: August 9, 2024

Port St. Lucie authorities are urging public to check carbon monoxide detectors following elderly woman’s death

An 82-year-old Port St. Lucie woman died this week and her husband remains in the hospital after a car left running in the couple’s garage is suspected to have leaked carbon monoxide into the home, officials say.

Police were called out to the one-story home Sunday morning after a neighbor called to report she saw the woman’s 85-year-old husband on the floor inside, according to reporting from local news outlets. When first responders arrived, they said they found the man unconscious but still breathing.

Police found a car running in the couple’s garage that they believed to be the cause of the carbon monoxide leak. The woman did not survive and her husband remains in the hospital receiving treatment.

Published on: June 25, 2024

Consumer Product Safety Commission urges consumers to steer clear of these carbon monoxide detectors. What’s wrong with the product?

By Leesfield & Partners

In a statement released late last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged buyers to avoid a specific company’s carbon monoxide detectors and replace it immediately.

Carbon monoxide detectors have the capacity to prevent about 200 deaths of accidental exposure a year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

With regular episodes of exposure to the lethal gas dominating headlines including the hospitalization of over a dozen Miami condo residents earlier this month, the use of these life-saving detectors has never been more important. However, some companies making these essential devices should be avoided.

Published on: June 11, 2024

Over 20 people hospitalized over the weekend in Bridgeport, Connecticut for carbon monoxide poisoning. How to keep your home safe.

By Leesfield & Partners

On the heels of over a dozen Miami condo residents being taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide injuries after a gas leak in the building, residents in Bridgeport, Connecticut suffered through a similar ordeal.

Firefighters and other emergency personnel were called out to the building housing several families and other individuals just around 3 a.m. Saturday after one of the building’s tenants called 911 explaining that they felt sick, according to local reporting. A recent bus fire nearby had cut off power to the building for days and firefighters told local news outlets that they found a generator running in the building’s basement, causing the gas to build up. These appliances are never to be used in enclosed spaces as they release carbon monoxide into the air.

There were no carbon monoxide detectors in the building at the time, meaning that the outcome for the families and tenants living there could easily have been very different had that first person feeling ill not called for emergency services, Bridgeport Fire Inspector Robert Lopez told reporters.

Published on: June 4, 2024

Dozens of Miami condo residents hospitalized Tuesday after possible carbon monoxide leak. How often does this happen?

By Leesfield & Partners

About 60 people were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning and 22 were taken to the hospital after a possible leak Tuesday at a Miami condominium.

The possible leak was reported just before 5 a.m. at the Hemingway Villa Condominiums in West Miami-Dade, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. By 7 a.m. Tuesday, emergency responders were still searching for the leak.

Additional details were not immediately available Tuesday.

Published on: May 22, 2024

Airbnb CEO talks difficulties of implementing carbon monoxide initiative in interview with NBC. How many people die needlessly from carbon monoxide poisoning?

By Leesfield & Partners

Nearly a decade after promising all properties listed on its platform would have detectors to safeguard guests from carbon monoxide poisoning, Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, called the task “very hard.”

The comment was made in a recent interview Chesky had with NBC discussing difficulties that the company has faced.

“It’s really hard to mandate things in 220 countries and regions and cities all over the world,” Chesky said in the interview. “And then if you mandate something, you have to have a mechanism to verify that it happens.”

Published on: June 16, 2023

Country’s Leading Carbon Monoxide Law firm Secures Eight-Figure Settlement

By Leesfield & Partners

Leesfield & Partners recently represented a couple exposed to carbon monoxide while on vacation in a foreign country. Despite numerous legal obstacles, an eight-figure settlement was secured in less than nine months. This is the latest of several CO exposure cases this firm has handled recently, an area of personal injury that requires creative legal strategizing and extensive legal experience.

What is Carbon Monoxide?

Carbon monoxide poisoning arises when one breathes in carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas devoid of scent, flavor, and hue. Even minimal exposure can have various effects on an individual, leading to fatigue, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide over a substantial duration can give rise to grave symptoms and health hazards, such as loss of consciousness, permanent brain damage, and fatality.

Published on: June 18, 2014

Children poisoned by carbon monoxide at Daycare sent to Hospital

By Leesfield & Partners

Yesterday, 72 children and 10 adults were emergently transferred to the hospital after a carbon monoxide leak was discovered at a daycare facility. Among all the small children, five were clearly more affected by headaches and vomiting. The authorities advised that the leak at “Les Petits Explorateurs” daycare in Quebec was contained and thankfully a tragedy had been avoided. The investigation continues as to how the leak had occurred the first place.

Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after inhalation of carbon monoxide, a toxic, odorless, tasteless, and colorless gas. Minimal exposure can affect a person in many ways, including fatigue, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. If carbon monoxide poisoning is prolonged over a significant period of time, severe symptoms and health risks will occur such as losing consciousness, permanent brain damage, and death.

In 2008, a Florida law finally passed with the help of Ira H Leesfield, which requires that every building for which a building permit is issued for new construction on or after July 1, 2008, and having a fossil-fuel-burning heater or appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage shall have an approved operational carbon monoxide alarm installed within 10 feet of each room used for sleeping purposes. (Fla. Stat. § 553.885)

Published on: June 10, 2013

Three people killed by carbon monoxide in North Carolina hotel room in two months

By Leesfield & Partners

Jeffrey Lee Williams and his mother Jeannie Williams were staying in hotel room 225 at the Best Western in Boone, North Carolina, this past weekend. On Saturday, the hotel staff was alerted by Jeannie’s husband that he could not reach his family and asked to go check on them. When they opened the door, first responders found the dead body of 11-year-old Jeffrey. Next to him was his mother Jeannie, who was still alive, but in a deep state of asphyxia. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, and as of today, Jeannie is listed in stable condition, still recovering at Watauga Medical Center.

On Monday afternoon, the Watauga County Health Department in charge with finding the cause of this incident advised that carbon monoxide was found in the hotel room where Jeffrey and his mother were staying this past weekend. Initially, the cause of death of the young boy was asphyxia, which leads to believe that something in the hotel room had caused his death.

Local news station WCNC-TV reports today that the hotel room in which the mother and son were staying was situated directly above the swimming pool of the hotel and the gas heater used to heat the water of the pool. The investigation is ongoing and further testings will be conducted in the next few days.