Warning.

I wanted to share with you all the exciting and somewhat frightening event that happened to us last night around 1:30 am.

We have a carbon monoxide detector located next to our room and after 7 years of having it, the voice warning went off last night. "warning, Carbon Monoxide, Warning." she said.

My husband and I woke up surprised. After discussing it, we decided that it was because we had had a fire in the fireplace and closed the vent when we finished. The heating vent must be pushing the "whatever" up. we decided to go back to bed. about 1/2 hour later it went off again. We got the kids all up and warm and called the fire department.

The Arvada Fire department rocks. they were here in about 5 minutes.

They came in with their detector and then told us to evacuate. we did have a high enough level of carbon monoxide. ( actually they had told us to leave when we first called but it was so cold outside. so we kind of waited instead.)

They tested each of us to check our oxygen levels. two of my children tested high enough that they put them on oxygen for 10 minutes. my 5 year old is one of those children. ( small bodies are more prone to the poison)

It was the fireplace that caused the carbon overload. Thankfully we were all alright and after airing out the house and 10 minutes of oxygen we were able to get back into the house and go to sleep.

things we learned.

Keep the vent to your fireplace open for 24 hours after putting the fire out.
Carbon monoxide spreads evenly so all the rooms tested with the same amount of CM.
Having a monoxide tester by our room is good but also one in the basement is needed and you can pretty much put it anywhere.

You probably already know this but I thought I would share from our experience. I don't know if this could have ended badly or not but I guess better safe than sorry.

Michelle Lynch