Allston tenants saved by CO detector
When he moved into an Allston apartment last fall, Patrick Mion's parents made sure that PJ, as his friends call him, had a carbon monoxide detector. Early yesterday, the piercing shriek of the small rectangular box may have saved the on-leave BU student's life, as well as those of his neighbors.
Deadly gas was seeping into the basement dwelling when the detector sounded, waking Mion, who called 911. By the time firefighters arrived, the levels of carbon monoxide in the air had reached such dangerous levels that they evacuated the building, home to dozens of residents. Ambulances took Mion and his three roommates to Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, where all four were treated with pure oxygen to counteract their carbon monoxide poisoning. They were then released.
"You think about it, $25 or $30 and it can save your life," said Mion's roommate Jason Gregoire, 20, a Northeastern University student who had the highest carbon monoxide levels in his bloodstream. "I never realized the seriousness of it until the doctors were like, 'You could have died today.' "
Boston fire officials blamed a faulty heater for the gas leak. State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said faulty heating systems are a common cause of carbon monoxide poisoning. After firefighters plugged the leak and aired out the building, residents were allowed to return to their apartments.
The building's management company installed carbon monoxide detectors in the basement yesterday. But later in the day, the city's Inspectional Services Department determined that the four basement units were illegal because the company that manages the building, Brighton Realty, had not obtained the proper permits. A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday morning, when the department will decide whether to condemn the four apartments.
Apartment B3, where Mion and his roommates lived, was boarded up yesterday afternoon; Brighton Realty managers agreed to house the students in a hotel. The occupants of the other three basement apartments, where the carbon monoxide levels had been lower, were allowed to return.
Wayne Jensen, a representative of Brighton Realty, said any problems cited by inspectors yesterday would be resolved by Tuesday's hearing.
Mion's father, Patrick, had installed the detector in September on the day the four roommates moved into their apartment. The Mions, who live near Albany, N.Y., have three detectors in their home.
"I cleaned the shower, and my husband went to the hardware store and bought the carbon monoxide detector and smoke detector," said Karen Mion, PJ's mother. "Now I'm really glad we did."
Gregoire said he had woken up to a kerosene-like odor about 4 a.m. yesterday. Thinking the smell had drifted in through his open window from the alley outside his bedroom, he went back to sleep.
Pandemonium erupted about 5:15 a.m. when the carbon monoxide detector began its shrill, insistent beeping. The detector was sitting outside Gregoire's orange-walled room, where firefighters later determined that the gas was entering the apartment.
"At first, I just thought it was an alarm clock," said Mion, 19, who plays in a death metal band called Waking Judea with two of his roommates. But the beeping didn't stop, and he detected a strange smell. Carbon monoxide is odorless; authorities said it was not clear yesterday whether another gas had also leaked into the apartment.
Mion called 911, and he and Gregoire woke their two groggy roommates. All four had gone to bed only two hours before the alarm went off.
"PJ ran into my room and was like, 'Adam, we've got to get out of here,' " said Adam Straub, a 19-year-old Boston University student. "I was like, 'No way, I'm sleeping.' "
But after he got up and left his room, Straub was overcome by the fumes.
"There was a tenseness in my chest," he said. "I was coughing. Basically, it was like a head rush. As soon as [Gregoire's] door opened, it was like being shot with tear gas."
When firefighters arrived, their own carbon monoxide meters detected dangerous levels of the gas.
"It was very high," said Scott Salman, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department. "That's why we required an evacuation."
Firefighters went door-to-door, waking as many as 200 residents and telling them to vacate their homes.
The MBTA sent buses so that residents could escape the rain for three hours until they were allowed to return home.
Meanwhile, the four roommates were beginning to realize they weren't feeling well. At first, they blamed the early hour.
"We felt crappy but we slept like two hours, so we figured it was just, whatever," Mion said.
But when they talked to firefighters, they realized they might be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. At St. Elizabeth's, tests revealed that all four had elevated levels of carbon monoxide in their blood.
"Without the detector, we would have been in bad shape," said Devin Toye, the fourth roommate and a 19-year-old student at Montserrat College of Art.
Yesterday, as residents were returning to 48 Brighton Ave., a statewide task force, organized by the state Department of Fire Services, was drafting its recommendations for reducing carbon monoxide poisoning. The group, which hopes to submit its recommendations in a few days, is considering requiring every home to contain a carbon monoxide detector, Coan said.
The task force was created after several reports of carbon monoxide poisoning this winter, including the case of a 7-year-old Plymouth girl who died last month. Nicole Garofalo was poisoned after the Jan. 22 northeaster, when more than 3 feet of snow blocked a vent from her family's propane-fired boiler.
Globe correspondents Cyra Master and Jennifer Nelson contributed to this report. Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.
