A 10-year-old girl is dead and a 12-year-old hospitalized in serious condition after being found in a home with elevated carbon monixide levels Monday morning.
The 10-year-old, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead in the emergency room of Swedish Covenant Hospital, where the 12-year-old was also taken, officials said.
Paramedics were called to a report of victims who were “unconscious, not breathing” about 5:20 a.m. in the 3000 block of West Gunnison Street, according to police and fire department spokesperson Larry Langford.
At the scene, firefighters detected “high” levels of CO at 300 ppm (parts per million), Langford said.
People Gas spokesperson David Schwartz said in a statement they were asked to respond as part of standard protocol. “There is no reason to believe the cause of the issue is related to any our equipment,” Schwartz said in the statement.
“The way it works, it’s a combination of strength and duration that determines if it’s fatal or not,” Langford said of CO poisoning.
“For instance, a 1,000 ppm reading could be fatal in 30 minutes or less and down to 300 it will take a couple hours at least,” he added.
That can happen if your house is closed up and your furnace is running continually because of a cold snap and you go to sleep, Langford said.
It was unclear if the home was equipped with a carbon monoxide, which is required by law, along with a smoke detector.
“A carbon monoxide detector will trip as low as 10 ppm, which would give you plenty of time to fix the situation and get out,” Langford said.
January is typically the coldest month in the city and the busiest for fires and co-related incidents, Langford said.
“Right now, this is definitely a Chicago cold snap, in the single-digits and teens with units (furnaces) running hard.”