‘Check your detectors’: couple warns of carbon monoxide after high levels found in baby’s room
Jul 22, 2022, 9:52 AM | Updated: Aug 4, 2022, 2:45 pm
LOGAN, Utah — The Gorze family is crediting a carbon monoxide detector for saving their lives.
On Wednesday night, as Ken and Roxanne Gorze were winding down for the day an alarm in their home went off.
“Everything started around 11:30 p.m., we were in bed and we heard the carbon monoxide detector go off,” Kyle Gorze said.
Firefighters responded to their home and detected the odorless, poisonous gas coming from their water heater. The highest levels were found in their baby’s nursery directly above the utility closet.
“Our daughter could have died, we could have died and never known what was causing it,” Gorze said.
They family just moved into the rental home three weeks ago and installed a Vivint system which included a carbon monoxide detector. It was the only one that went off that night. The detector that was already in the home when they moved in, did not pick up the carbon monoxide.
“I went back to check the smoke detector we have downstairs. It is a smoke and CO detector combined and it expired Jan 2016,” Gorze said.
The family is just grateful one of the alarms went off and are still reflecting on what could have happened if they had gone to bed that night.
“When you are in that moment you really don’t know how to react and what is going on,” Roxanne Gorze said. “If we didn’t have the alarm, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Jake Erickson with Unified Fire Authority said this incident serves as a good reminder to recognize that detectors save lives. He said 470 people die every year in the US because of carbon monoxide poisoning and thousands of others fall very ill due to exposure.
“If you have high levels of CO for an extended amount of time, it can cause death,” he said. “It’s colorless, it’s odorless, it’s tasteless so there is really no way for you to know if you have CO in your home unless you have a CO detector.”
Utah law requires at least one CO detector on each habitable level.
Fire officials suggest testing the detectors every six months and replacing them every 10 years, depending on the manufacturer. They also suggest writing the expiration date on the back of the device, which are often a duel smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
