At least eight members of a Burtonsville family became sick from carbon monoxide fumes from a gas grill they fired up inside their house on Sunday.
It happened in the 13600 block of Cedar Creek Lane. Investigators said everyone is expected to be fine.
The family lost power and were socked in by snow on their unplowed street. An ambulance and firetruck couldn't get up to the house. So emergency crews carried all eight, one-by-one, slogging through the snow. There were several children, including a baby. They had apparently been using the charcoal grill to heat the house and cook food.
Neighbors were startled by the rescue that started at one end of a snowy street and ended at the far end.
"Our next door neighbors were trying to grill something in the house so it ended up catching fire. Everybody started passing out from carbon monoxide. So my mom let them all in and the fire department came and saved everybody. They were in pretty much bad condition. Everybody was just passing out, gassed up from all that smoke and stuff like that," said next-door neighbor John Mgaza.
Carbon monoxide can be especially dangerous when using alternative heating elements such as kerosene or propane heaters--or in this case a charcoal grill. It is hard to detect the unsafe level of carbon monoxide, or CO2, because it is a colorless and odorless gas.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, nausea, dizziness and vomiting. Carbon monoxide detectors can be purchased at home improvement stores.