Leak caused carbon monoxide incident in Dartmouth: emergency officials

Five people went to hospital due to carbon monoxide poisoning in Halifax.

A leak caused a carbon monoxide incident that hospitalized at least five people in Dartmouth, N.S., on Sunday, according to the Halifax Professional Fire Fighters Association.

“From what we’ve been able to understand from the members who were on scene, there was a leak in the exhaust system of the boiler of the building. So, the boiler was inside the building in the furnace room, and there’s a pipe that goes from the boiler to exhaust… there was a leak somewhere in that exhaust system that created the carbon monoxide,” said Brent Williams, spokesperson for association.

He says it was a good catch by a staff member at Dartmouth General Hospital, who discovered elevated carbon monoxide levels in a patient who was brought in by paramedics. They then alerted the fire department.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency arrived to a three-storey apartment building on Albro Lake Road around 1 a.m. Sunday. Members of the Hazardous Materials Team were also dispatched to the scene.

“Our initial crews that showed up found extremely high levels of carbon monoxide poisoning throughout the building. So, they immediately evacuated the building, they started accounting for everybody, to make sure everybody was actually out of their apartments,” says Williams.

In Nova Scotia, smoke alarms are mandated in buildings, but carbon monoxide alarms are not.

Williams reinforces the importance of having both.

“Halifax Professional Fire Fighters urges the citizens of Halifax, and across the province of Nova Scotia, to install carbon monoxide alarms in their houses or buildings, especially if there’s any sort of combustion going on in their house,” says Williams.

“Get your chimney’s checked by certified professionals, get your boiler and furnaces checked by certified professionals and install your carbon monoxide alarms.”

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