Close Call: Surviving a Deadly Carbon Monoxide Scare
It was a typical Thursday morning, and I was getting ready for the day. I turned on the faucet to get some hot water for my shave, but to my dismay, there was no hot water. “What the heck?” I muttered to myself. “Isn’t the whole point of having a water heater to have hot water whenever I need it?”
I decided to investigate the situation and see if I could find the source of the problem. As I walked around the house, I realized that it was colder than usual. “Did I forget to turn the heating on last night?” I thought. “That would explain why it’s so chilly in here.”
I made my way to the water heater and noticed that the lights on the control panel were flashing. “That’s strange,” I thought. “I don’t remember those lights flashing before.” I opened the manual and tried to reset the heater as instructed. To my relief, the heater came on for a short 20 seconds, but then it made a funny blowing noise and shut off again. “Great,” I thought sarcastically. “This is just what I need on a cold morning.”
With no hot water or central heating and a forecast of -2° Celsius, I knew I had to take action fast. I contacted the landlord and was told that an engineer would be sent out ASAP. However, the earliest available appointment was on Saturday. “Are they kidding me?” I thought incredulously. “Two whole days without hot water or heating? I’ll be a popsicle by then!”
I decided to take matters into my own hands and made some calls to find someone who could come out sooner. After some persistent phone calls, I managed to get an engineer to come out within four hours. “Finally,” I thought with relief. “Now we can get this heater fixed and have some warmth in this house.”
But my relief was short-lived when the engineer asked me an unexpected question. “When did you have your outside walls plastered?” he asked. Confused, I replied, “Errr, about six weeks ago…why?”
The engineer proceeded to explain that when the contractors came to plaster our walls, they covered the filter and trapped the carbon monoxide gases in our property. “What? That can’t be right,” I thought in disbelief. “How could they be so careless?”
The engineer tested the air and found that there was a dangerous level of carbon monoxide in the house. “You’re lucky to be alive,” he told me. “The measurement downstairs was 46%, and upstairs, it was 18%. You could have been killed by this gas.”
My heart raced as I realized the severity of the situation. I quickly evacuated the house and called the landlord to inform them of the danger. Thankfully, they took immediate action and sent someone out to fix the problem.
After the situation was resolved, I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was to be alive. “I never realized the importance of having a carbon monoxide detector in the house,” I thought to myself. “From now on, I’ll make sure to have one installed and checked regularly. I don’t want to take any chances when it comes to the safety of myself and my family.”
EDIT: I have re-written the events to better suit a wider audience 12/04/2023
