Upon arrival it was noted there was a concentration of 10PPM CO in the hallway which had increased as personnel made their way further into the building. SHAES members asked hotel employees to initiate the evacuation process and exit the building as fire personnel donned self-contained breathing apparatus, furthering their investigation and continuing evacuation efforts.

FD personnel found the greatest concentration of CO in a mechanical room, 150PPM. It was determined that an exhaust pipe from a natural gas fired hot water heater had detached and was exhausting all combustion by-products into the mechanical room. Adjacent rooms were reading 40-50 PPM CO. Sustained exposure to CO at 150PPM will cause disorientation, unconsciousness and possible death.

All residents and staff were evacuated from the hotel. FD personnel mitigated all hazards, ventilated the entire building, checked all the rooms for residual CO and allowed residents and staff to re-enter the building.

SHAES has added 2 inspector positions over the past 4-5 years to assist the Deputy Chief with fire code inspections, pre-plans and short-term rental inspection responsibilities. For instance, 2021 to date, our inspection program has completed 147 commercial building pre-plans, 86 fire code inspections and 326 short term rental inspections. This program has proven to be very fruitful and imperative for the safety of our residents and visitors. This also helps in familiarizing our SHAES team with the layouts of our many businesses and challenges that may arise if called upon to respond. Pre-plans are uploaded to I-pads which are located in all our first line apparatus arriving to an emergency scene.

This incident is a very good example of the importance of fire code inspections. Smoke alarms, CO alarms, exit signs are all on a long list of items to be inspected in a commercial building. Our inspectors verify that these are present and operating. The hotel referenced above, for instance, was just inspected in early June 2021. If CO alarms were not present or not operating properly this incident could have surely proven fatal.

We commend our inspection team: Dep. Chief Keith Bierhalter, Asst. Inspector Steven Cavadas and Asst. Inspector Rex Haner and our on-duty staff and paid on call members that handled the situation with professionalism and expertise: Capt. Ronald Ridley, FF/Paramedic Dawn Hinz, FF/Paramedic Zachary Kenreich, Lt. Brian Horan and FF Matthew Dey.