Posted at: 02/03/2010 9:17 AM | KSAX.com
By: Megan Brown

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Local Authorities Stress CO Detectors After Carbon Monoxide Kills One, Poisons Seven

FROHN TOWNSHIP, Minn. - "It's an odorless, clear gas, so if carbon monoxide is in a room or some place that you're in, you're not going to be able to tell because you can't smell it, you can't see it," Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp said.

 It's a silent killer that can sweep you away in seconds.

"If you breathe it in, in high enough concentrations, it can kill you pretty quickly," he said.

It's a very scary thought but a reality for some, including one family in Frohn Township.

"One of the individuals was down in the basement sprawled out at the foot of the stairs. Another was in the bathroom and two of them were laying on a bed," Sheriff Hodapp said.

A total of seven people were taken to the hospital after a faulty furnace leaked carbon monoxide into a home just outside of Bemidji Saturday. Three of the seven were Beltrami sheriff deputies. The owner of the home, 50-year-old colleen Jennings, never woke up.

"If you don't realize you're being poisoned by carbon monoxide and if you lay down and go to sleep, you could die before someone else finds you or you discover what the cause of all of your symptoms are," Hodapp said.

Symptoms he said can easily be mistaken for the flu or some other type of sickness.

"People who are experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning might think that they have H1N1 or something like that. If that's the case, if they go to sleep the might not wake up," he said.

Written for the web by Megan Brown

mbrown@ksax.com