Titusville, FL – WKMG-TV – A Titusville mother and her two children are ‘very lucky’ to be alive Thursday after an apparent leak from their water heater caused their home to fill with carbon monoxide.
Police said the mother woke up at about 11 p.m. Wednesday night at her home on Melissa Drive and noticed that she was having a hard time breathing.
She immediately called a neighbor, who rushed to the house to help her and her two sons. The neighbor said one of the boys had his bedroom door open and was in much worse condition than his brother who had his door closed.
The family was removed from the home and fire crews moved in to investigate Thursday morning. Titusville rescue crews eventually discovered high levels of carbon monoxide coming from the hot water heater in the house.
A level 10 reading of carbon monoxide in a home is strong enough to make a person pass out, Local 6 News reported. The levels inside the home recorded in the 90s.
“They’re very lucky,” Titusville Fire and Emergency spokesman Scoot Goenicke said. “If this had happened a little later and they had been asleep, the levels had built up slower, yes, this could’ve been really tragic,”
Goenicke warns families to make sure gas appliances are working properly.
The woman and her sons are in stable condition at Parrish Medical Center.