Close call a reminder to check

With the heating season now upon us, it’s a good time to check the status of your carbon monoxide detectors or get some if you don’t have them already. Point Roberts resident Dave Espley, had that point drummed into him just a week ago.

Recovering from recent knee replacement surgery and spending much of his time in bed, he began hearing his CO monitor alarm going off. He had purchased it last year the day after he heard the tragic case of Point Roberts residents Murray Church and Gail Asmundsen who died from CO poisoning on November 25 last year. The couple had moved into their new house on Calder Drive and died apparently due to the faulty installation of a radiant heating system.

“When I heard what happened to them, the first thing I did was to check to see if there were CO detectors in the house. When I didn’t find any, I went to Nielson’s Building Center and bought one. About five or six days ago, I woke up and heard the alarm going off. I went downstairs to the room that has the furnace and water heater where I had installed the detector. I figured it was probably the batteries that needed to be changed and brought it back upstairs to the kitchen and replaced them. Sure enough, it stopped beeping and didn’t start up when I put new batteries in it.” He left the detector on the kitchen island.

Four hours later, he returned home from Bellingham and when he opened the door, he heard the beeping again. “I know carbon monoxide is odorless, but I just had a bad feeling about things,” he said. “I called [assistant fire chief] John Shields and he was here in under five minutes. As soon as he walked in, his CO monitor started going off. I told him I thought the source was downstairs in the furnace room and when we walked in, his detector went crazy.” The two turned off the furnace, opened doors and windows and aired out the house.

“Realistically, that device probably saved my life,” he said. Espley now has four detectors placed around his house.

The Point Roberts fire department has free CO detectors available to homes that will be occupied this winter. Email chief@wcfd5.com if you would like one.