Carbon Monoxide Poisening

Monoxide poisoning
By Paul Cowley - Red Deer Advocate - July 15, 2008 | | | |


Emergency personnel, school officials and parents at the scene after a number of children at Grandview School were taken into ambulances.
by JERRY GERLING/Advocate staff
More than 20 children were taken to hospital Monday afternoon after many were sickened by carbon monoxide poisoning at Grandview Elementary School.

Red Deer Emergency Services was called at about 3:15 p.m., after a number of the 28 children involved in a playground group program at the school at 4145 – 46th St. reported feeling sick, said Randy Kidd, platoon chief.

“We believe the problem was a carpet cleaning van parked by the doors running,” he said. “(The carbon monoxide) was building up over the course of the day.”

Making the problem worse was the prevailing wind, which was blowing exhaust into the building.

Some of the children aged six to 12 were throwing up and others complained of nausea and headaches.

Kidd said about 16 or 17 children were transported to hospital by ambulance and several others were taken by parents. Children who had been taken home by their parents were called and advised to go to hospital if they experienced any symptoms.

David Thompson Health Region spokeswoman Elaine McFadden said all of the children were in stable condition and the hospital was confident all parents had been contacted.

“Any of the ones showing symptoms have been placed into beds in the ER. They will keep them for several hours if they have symptoms.”

David Blackmon said he got a call from one of the program’s staff about 3:20 p.m. He went to the school and picked up his seven-year-old son and took him to hospital.

The youngster was doing fine. He had complained of a headache and was running a slight fever.

Blackmon said the program’s staff seemed calm and organized.

“They said they had all the kids outside.”

The call was not as stressful as it could have been, he said.

“When you get a call from school, you assume the worst right off the bat.”

Another father, who did not want his name used, said his wife got a phone call indicating that children in the program had fallen ill.

“They phoned her to come and get her because they were throwing up,” said the man, who has a six-year-old daughter in the Red Deer Child Care Society program.

Kidd said when fire-medics entered the school they were getting carbon monoxide readings as high as 50 to 80 parts per million.

“We consider anything over 10 parts per million to be cause for concern.”

Carbon monoxide poisoning can be fatal if it builds up in a person’s body over a period of time.

“If this was to happen in a home when people are sleeping it could have been very serious,” he said.

Fire-medics detected carbon monoxide in the systems of some of the children, he said.

Emergency services later ventilated the school and ATCO Gas was called in to check other gas sources as a precaution.



This is scary. DD is in other summer camps right now, thank heavens. Many of her friends and classmates were affected by this. I think some questions are going to need to be answered on how this happened.