Trenton, OH- A Trenton family has a message for all residents this winter — check to make sure you have working batteries in your carbon monoxide detector.
While most people were sleeping Tuesday morning, they were trying to save each others lives at their Brookwood Drive home.
Getting up at 3 a.m. is just part of the daily routine for Daniel Helton of Trenton.
What wasn’t routine — hearing the carbon monoxide detector blaring.
“I thought it might have been the battery and did what I usually do, I took it, put it on my tongue. It worked. Worked perfectly. She said what are we going to do. I said just call 911,” Daniel Helton told 9News.
Butler County rescue crews arrived to find a faulty furnace leaking carbon monoxide into the family’s home.
“I felt tried really tired but I managed to get up and get my little brother up,” said Rodney Black.
They transported Helton’s wife Betty, and her two sons, Nick and Rodney, to Middletown Regional Hospital.
Betty had complained of flu-like symptoms for more than two-weeks.
Her son Nick said he and his brother had headaches, but consider themselves lucky that the unit and batteries were working.
“If we didn’t have it, we probably wouldn’t be alive right now,” said Nick Jeffers.
Doctors released the family from the hospital, they were home recovering Tuesday night.
They say every home should have a working detector.