Coroner: Deaths of Washington Township couple carbon monoxide-related They said the power went out and the blower quit working...I'm not sure how that is supposed to make the chimney quit working??? Did you guys in the area hear any more details about it walt or Marshel54 ?
I've seen wood stove smoke come in back down thru a oil boiler adjacent chimney in a basement a window left open upstairs could cause a chimney to vent the wrong way. Powered exhaust vent ?
Haven't heard anything about it. Coal burning stove and the fan goes out? I would think the chimney would remove the carbon monoxide. Don't some of those modern efficient gas water heaters have fan vents in their exhausts?
Reminder to all...smoke detectors *and CO detectors are needed with any form of heating excluding electric.
I know it is a serious situation, but maybe an environmental media conspiracy against us that like to burn wood and coal. The whole article does not make sense to me if the coal heater was installed correctly. My stove would be one comforting factor if we lost power for an extended time and I wouldn't be concerned about using it. At least we would be warm able to cook. I have been thinking about purchasing a generator to power my freezer and water pump if the power goes out. I just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.
If it was a power vented stoker, it should have went out relatively soon after the power. Since the co-worker new of the stove, maybe they were having issues with it? Seems odd that a 911 call was made for a no show at work, or maybe its how it written.
well as just having gone 20 days without power yup freezer important.. ya want a power strip in kitchen fridge coffee pot..water to drink and flush yup that' important so is hot water.. takes hours to wire that up trust me.. Woodstock works to heat house just fine
Yeah, the blower for the duct distribution system...the only other fan or blower that I know of would be if it had a forced combustion fan, the loss of either one should not mean smoke/fumes in the house.
I bought one back in '98 when I purchased this place...surprisingly it has only been used once where I really had to have it...still worth it.
Seems to me either something was installed other than optimally...or there was just some sort of odd draft issue with the chimney system and/or the house in general. The lady was a dispatcher for the local PD...when she didn't show up for work they called the sheriff local to where they lived (2 counties over) to check in on them...
I don't know any details but I grow up with this man's mother. I was told that the carbon monoxide detector was 110 not battery ,so when the power went off they lost there protection.
flue reversal with some coal still hot in unit would be my guess based on smell description.- generally have two fans one controlled by home thermostat so when that calls for heat it blows combustion air into fire box , other is distribution blower mostly controlled by a thermo unit ( forget name) that senses heat rise in plenium - has high ( on) and low (off) setting for distribution blower. in a power outage neither would be working. a lot of them have a simple spin damper on the ash door for non assisted combustion air control. Had a wood/coal furnace never trusted that unit.
Hmm, I am not aware of any 110V models that do not have battery backup...but they certainly could be out there. The way most of them work, they will still give an alarm chirp whenever the battery is failing...even when the power is on...but anything can fail I suppose...
that is a problem with older co detectors that were hardwired- newer units have battery back up - but if you forget about them ( just a 9v) ain't going to be of any use. I think the newer ones will start beeping if that battery goes too low.
I just looked at mine, and they are 110V with a battery backup. I was going to be doing some shopping tomorrow otherwise.
My main detectors are hardwired in but also have a 9v in them as well, not sure if all are like that though, but in the last three places I lived they were all like that. It is a sad event reguardless.
