Fire Department & Foley's Encourage Use of CO2 Detectors:
15% Discount Coupon for Gazette Readers

( December 12, 2002 ) The Larchmont Fire Department and Foley’s Hardware are encouraging all home owners to install detectors to protect themselves from an invisible killer: carbon monoxide.

Cold weather and carbon monoxide poisoning are a deadly duo. With the recent blast of Arctic weather, we’re spending more time indoors with the windows closed and the heating system cranked up. A malfunctioning furnace or a car warming up in an attached garage can emit toxic levels of the odorless and colorless gas that can spread throughout a home. Other gas-burning appliances, fireplaces, or charcoal braziers may also emit toxic fumes.

How can you protect your household? Install a detector.

Says Fire Chief Brian Payne, “Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are proven to save lives. The two should be side by side, especially on second floors where the bedrooms are.” Homeowners can spring for hardwired systems and those that automatically call for help, but they can also find relatively simple and low-cost alarms. Foley’s carries a selection and is offering a 15% discount to Larchmont Gazette readers with the coupon found below: (Click here for a "printer-friendly version")

Carbon monoxide poisoning claims over 200 lives annually and sends thousands of victims to emergency rooms. (See: Consumer Product Safety Commission.) Here in Larchmont, the Fire Department responds to numerous calls – both serious and potentially serious.

Only last month, firefighters were called to a home to investigate a smoky basement. There was no carbon monoxide detector in the home, but the department used its own handheld meter and found extremely high levels on the first, second and basement levels. The Chief recalled a previous incident on Walnut Avenue where a car left running unattended in the garage sent a number of residents to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Unfortunately, carbon monoxide is difficult to detect without a device. You can’t see or smell the gas, and symptoms of poisoning resemble the flu: headache, dizziness, fatigue and disorientation. Recent improvements in detectors have made them more reliable than older models that tended to produce false alarms.

Regardless of model, all alarms should be treated as valid: on Long Island, six people died after they ignored their detector’s alarm (See: A/C and Heating Ran While Six Died in NY)

“It’s great that Foley’s is offering the 15% discount,” declared Chief Payne and added, “If homeowners have questions about installation or placement, they should call the fire house at 834-0016.

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