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mysterious CO calls
sunday night (one of the hottest nights of the year so far) we got called out for a CO alarm. when we got there the reading was over 90. Obviously we evacuated the residence then masked up and ventilated. My officer and I went inside the non-airconditioned home to search for the source. well after searching every inch of three floors(third floor was an attic converted to a bedroom!) for 45 minutes we couldnt find the source (neither could the gas company). We finally got the levels down to 4 and under from ventilating, we closed up the house for ten minutes, checked again and since the levels stayed the same 4 or under we called it good and left. what do your companies do when you can't find the source for a CO call with high readings?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Farrar on
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Did I read this right, you vented before a search?
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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1. Never vent a CO call before a search.
2. You are supposed to be on air, and work your way through the entire house turning on and testing EVERY creater of CO in the residence while it is running. Most people when cooking and getting a CO alarm will shut off the stove, the water heater will shut off when it is done running the cycle, and you never know without testing everything.
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Permalink Reply by Kristy Oxholm on
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Hey,
A variety of questions come to mind. Was the reading of 90 on your meter or on a digital readout detector?
Is there an attached garage? If so, the CO can take hours to seep into the house, dependant upon weather conditions and other conditions in the residence (exhaust fans running, etc.)
Where did you find the highest readings?
Had they had a BBQ on an attached deck with the windows open?
Most times we should be able to at least narrow down the source, but I have been on calls where we haven't been able to figure it out. Our department will leave the house back in the hands of the owner if we are able to ventilate down to acceptable levels and they don't go back up. We are very careful to explain to the owner that they should call back if there is any indication of further problems. We have left new detectors if we thought there might be a possiblity of a bad detector.
Kristy
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Permalink Reply by Michael Eck on
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As others have stated check every source. With all windows and doors closed (as it sounds like you did)
If you are unable to find anything, exit and rezero your meter, possibly use a second meter.
If you are still unable to find anything you may consider giving the resident a battery operated detector to keep until they are able to purchase a new unit.
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Permalink Reply by Sandy113 on
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ya sorry about that...we searched first my bad haha thats how we got the high readings! when we searched and couldn't find the source we vented and continued to search while venting to see which room took the longest to drop!
we used probably about four meters ont hat call...3 from us and one from the gas company. there was an attached garage but the readings were low out there and they had no vehicles in there. they had a deck with a BBQ but that was brand new and burning clean. the highest readings were in the attic/bedroom (wich we alerted the construction official about!) we tested everything and couldn't find the source!
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