Long Island, NY – One man was killed and his wife was hospitalized from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in their Melville home Thursday morning, Suffolk police said.
Stephen Yancofski, 55, was found unconscious in the Scott Drive home and taken to Plainview Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Suffolk County Homicide Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer said.
His wife, Kyriaki Bouziotas, 59, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center where she was being treated in a bariatric chamber for carbon monoxide poisoning, Beyrer said.
Bouziotas called her daughter Thursday morning to report she was vomiting and her husband would not wake up. The daughter came to the house and called 911 at 8:30 a.m. Dispatchers told the daughter to try to remove her mom and stepfather from the home.
Yancofski was unconscious and Bouziotas was too weak to move, Beyrer said.
When Melville firefighters entered the home, the CO detectors on their uniforms immediately went off, he said.
Firefighters found the gas leak in a basement hot water heater, where authorities suspect a loose fitting PVC pipe on the heating exhaust system became disassembled filling the house with carbon monoxide, Beyrer said.