Carbon Monoxide Detection

Sandy Bass of Elon, North Carolina

Earlier this fall, Sandy Bass of Elon, NC returned home from a weekend away and promptly switched on her gas logs to warm the house. “I was going to stay in that night but decided to get the mail at my neighbor’s and ended up having dinner there,” she said. Upon her return, Mrs. Bass sat on the couch to relax but became drowsy. She turned off the fireplace and went to bed only to be awoken by the carbon monoxide detector beeping. An ADT operator called to explain that the carbon monoxide alarm had been triggered and that the fire department would be on the way.

When firefighters arrived, they found lethal levels of carbon monoxide, with the highest concentration in the Bass’s bedroom. Due to the unsafe conditions, Mrs. Bass spent the night with a neighbor. The next day, a gas company technician determined there were multiple leaks around the gas logs and one at the outside meter. “This was especially concerning because the house and fireplace are not old,” said Mrs. Bass.

The carbon monoxide detector was an option on the ADT system, not something Mrs. Bass really had thought about getting before. “I knew a carbon monoxide alarm was probably a smart thing to have, but had the ADT rep not suggested it, I might not have gotten one,” she said. “It was a blessing that spared my life. If ADT hadn’t installed the carbon monoxide detector, this story would have turned out very differently.”