Oct 2, 2008 10:56 pm US/Central
Police: 3 Dead From CO Poisoning In Mpls. Home
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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Police responded to a medical call on the 1600 block of Girard Avenue North in Minneapolis at around 6:30 Thursday night.
CBS
Two men and one teenage boy are dead from carbon monoxide poisoning at a Minneapolis home, according to authorities on the scene.
Police responded to a medical call on the 1600 block of Girard Avenue North in Minneapolis at around 6:30 Thursday night. Firefighters arrived and pulled two adult males and 14-year-old boy out of the house.
"The CO level at the time was 500 parts per million which causes unconsciousness or death within 30 minutes to one hour," said Minneapolis Fire Department Batallion Chief Ed Otis.
The two men were pronounced dead at the scene and the 14-year-old boy was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died a short while later. The teenage boy was the son of one of the men who died on the scene.
Police said the victims were staying in the house after all of the utilities had been turned off.
According to a friend of one of the men who died, a gas-powered generator had been running in the basement of the home after the electricity had been turned off. Police said there was a generator found in the unventilated basement and that was the cause of the carbon monoxide in the house.
The friend said he was supposed to go to the home that night to help with ventilation from the generator. When he tried contacting the men at the home he was unable to reach them, so he went to check on them. When the friend arrived he discovered all three unconscious inside the home.
Under a new state law that went into effect this summer, all homes are required to have carbon monoxide detectors, but authorities said gas generators should never be used inside a structure.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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