Newburgh City Police save three people unconscious from carbon-monoxide poisoning

[ace84 100]

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Three poisoned Newburgh residents were saved Friday night when police dragged them out of a house on Carpenter Avenue, where carbon monoxide had accumulated to more than 20 times the toxic threshold.

http://www.recordonl.../NEWS/912059993

Edited December 6, 2009 by jack10562
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[BFD1054 1,552]

Kudos to the NPD officers who responded to this incident. Their quick thinking and actions no doubt saved these people. They put themselves directly in harms way and could easily become victims themselves.

Police officers are often the first responders to arrive on these incidents. Hats off to them for their actions.

Hopefully this will highlight the importance of emergency services for the City of Newburgh. I hope the City council thinks of these incidents when they're cutting fire and PD jobs.

On a side note; do any PD's carry CO meters?

[NWFDMedic 58]

Kudos to the NPD, NFD, Mobile Life, and SLH staff. The entire emergency service staff did a great job getting rescuing these folks, treating them, getting them to the hospital, and then getting them expeditiously to Jacobi.

[DOC22 1]

Kudos to these three police officers!!! Great Job!!!!

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Kudos to the NPD officers who responded to this incident. Their quick thinking and actions no doubt saved these people. They put themselves directly in harms way and could easily become victims themselves.

Police officers are often the first responders to arrive on these incidents. Hats off to them for their actions.

Hopefully this will highlight the importance of emergency services for the City of Newburgh. I hope the City council thinks of these incidents when they're cutting fire and PD jobs.

On a side note; do any PD's carry CO meters?

I tip my hat to the officers for putting themselves in a bad situation and knowing they were. I also wanted to point out as an educational tool that this easily could have gone the other way and they could have easily gone to the "would be rescuer" tag if things worked differently. So if anyone else is thinking of this...you have to remember that you cannot tell the levels and you may immediately become sick, unconscious or die. Newburgh has staffed FD units with SCBA to handle this safely and their response times being paid need not to be mentioned. Now before any of you candy eaters say I'm bashing them...read it again, take a deep breath. Just because something turned out "ok" doesn't mean that there isn't something to learn. That is why we do post call critiques, etc.

I'm glad the officers outcome was ok...

[PFDRes47cue 653]

Kudos to the NPD and NFD and all who were involved. Great job!

[DR104 141]

I tip my hat to the officers for putting themselves in a bad situation and knowing they were. I also wanted to point out as an educational tool that this easily could have gone the other way and they could have easily gone to the "would be rescuer" tag if things worked differently. So if anyone else is thinking of this...you have to remember that you cannot tell the levels and you may immediately become sick, unconscious or die. Newburgh has staffed FD units with SCBA to handle this safely and their response times being paid need not to be mentioned. Now before any of you candy eaters say I'm bashing them...read it again, take a deep breath. Just because something turned out "ok" doesn't mean that there isn't something to learn. That is why we do post call critiques, etc.

I'm glad the officers outcome was ok...

I 2nd that!!!!!!

What was the foul smell?

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Glad the Officers made it out okay, but I question the decision making by the supervisor there. Its not like they could know the CO levels were low enough for them to make an excape.

[abaduck 123]

I tip my hat to the officers for putting themselves in a bad situation and knowing they were. I also wanted to point out as an educational tool that this easily could have gone the other way and they could have easily gone to the "would be rescuer" tag if things worked differently. So if anyone else is thinking of this...you have to remember that you cannot tell the levels and you may immediately become sick, unconscious or die. Newburgh has staffed FD units with SCBA to handle this safely and their response times being paid need not to be mentioned. Now before any of you candy eaters say I'm bashing them...read it again, take a deep breath. Just because something turned out "ok" doesn't mean that there isn't something to learn. That is why we do post call critiques, etc.

I'm glad the officers outcome was ok...

I'd call that a good point Tom.... respect to the officers who went in and got the job done, but... what's the concentration that will drop you within few seconds? 10,000PPM? Something like that I'm pretty sure... That's *high* but 'only' ten time what these guys had to deal with.

On a point of order, what does the average cop know about CO - causes, effects, symptoms etc.? Is that something they get trained in at all?

[jack10562 414]

I 2nd that!!!!!!

What was the foul smell?

When a furnace or boiler malfunctions and is producing high levels of CO, often there are unburned hydrocarbons and aldehydes present which have a distinct pungent odor and taste. Of course CO is odorless colorless and tasteless, but when these other detectable compounds are present there is a good chance the CO levels are dangerously high as well.

I would venture to say that NO PD's equip their officers with personal CO detection devices, (or measure oxygen deficiency) that they would be alerted to the presence of a danger. The emergency responders and occupants are lucky the levels were not any higher and the residents were found when they were. A little more time and it would have been a very different outcome.

The CO level for dropping dead after two or three breaths is around 12,000 PPM (1.2%)

This is an easily attainable level, but fortunately uncommon.

[oc344 0]

The City of Newburgh Police, Fire and EMS are top notch and good job. Regarding CNFD response times...amazing...

Keep up the good work down in the burgh!