According to the Schenectady Daily Gazette, a man trying to stay warm accidentally died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. The family of Jack Idec says he was just trying to stay warm when he turned on his stove. He was found dead just hours later.
Neighbors call this man death a tragedy. They describe Jack Idec as a kind man, someone who kept to himself. But say they hope his deadly mistake will prevent others from doing the same.
According to the paper, Idec was trying to stay warm in his studio apartment on Campbell Avenue a few weeks back when he turned his stove on. The heat in his apartment wasn’t on. Idec turned on the top burners on the stove to help stay warm.
Unfortunately, two of those burners didn’t light, instead they released carbon monoxide into the air.
By the time firefighters arrived to help it was just too late. Neighbors describe what they saw. “We saw all these fire trucks come up and these ambulances and stuff so we went walking to the corner and firefighters said get away. Its a gas leak,” Denise Walker says.
We tried to get in touch with the family but have been told they’re too distraught to speak on camera. Neighbors say they hope a new law requiring every home in New York State to have a carbon monoxide detector will prevent death like this in the future.