By Sarah Fulton
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
ALBURTIS, Pa. — A carbon monoxide scare in Alburtis and a death in a neighboring hotel has led Borough Council to enact an ordinance requiring residential facilities and the owners of rental properties to install detectors for the potentially deadly gas.
Alburtis appears to be the first area municipality to adopt an ordinance requiring carbon monoxide detectors since a man died following exposure to the gas at an Upper Macungie Township hotel. Upper Macungie supervisors also plan to adopt an ordinance.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas emitted by fuel-burning equipment, such as furnaces, water heaters and automobiles. It can be fatal in large quantities.
The Alburtis ordinance, approved last week, requires apartment buildings, hotels, day cares, long-term care facilities, group homes and dormitories to install the detectors. Also, facilities capable of hosting a public assembly of 100 or more people, such as restaurants, theaters and meeting halls, must install detectors.
Alburtis council was prompted to adopt the ordinance, which takes effect Nov. 15, because of recent events in the area.
"It started a bit back when the hotel in [Upper Macungie] had a problem," Council President Steven Hill said.
A guest at Best Western in the Kuhnsville section of Upper Macungie was killed in January by carbon monoxide poisoning when, investigators said, a construction canopy along an exterior wall of the hotel blocked the deadly gas from the hotel's propane-fired water heaters from escaping through a vent.
Philip D. Prechtel, 63, died, and his wife, Katherine, was sickened. One other hotel guest, two employees, two police officers and three ambulance workers who responded to the scene were taken to hospitals.
Hill said the borough had its own recent scare when a carbon monoxide alarm went off at a local apartment building. Firefighters responded and the scene was declared safe, but the building's furnace was determined to be malfunctioning.
"We have a couple of old apartment buildings," Hill said. The ordinance "just seems like a good idea."
Buildings that do not contain fuel-burning appliances and are not attached to a garage are exempt from the ordinance. The new law will not apply to private homes.
In Upper Macungie, supervisors in February directed the township solicitor to draft an ordinance requiring detectors in commercial buildings and in all new homes. Existing homes would be exempt unless the owner does major renovations.
Township officials recommend that all homeowners purchase the detectors, which cost about $20.
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