By Derek Gentile
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspaper Group Inc.
All Rights Reserved
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Members of the police and fire departments, as well as an oil burner consultant, will be inspecting the Dalton Avenue home of Pasquale Perry and his sister, Mary LeClair, today to determine the exact reason the pair was stricken by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Perry, 67, remains in the critical care unit of Berkshire Medical Center, but, according to a friend, was conscious yesterday and speaking.
LeClair, for whom no age was given, was transported to Hartford (Conn.) Hospital, where she is also in critical condition. Her treatment included immersion in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to accelerate the cleansing of the carbon monoxide in her blood stream.
A fire department spokesman said on Sunday that the oil burning heater used by the duo was only about a year old.
Yesterday, Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Spaniol said that records indicate the house’s chimney was cleaned last year.
“There is a serious investigation going on,” he said. “That chimney was pretty well blocked.”
Spaniol said that even the most poorly functioning oil burning stove “would not have produced that amount of blockage.”
Yesterday, Spaniol estimated that no more than 20 percent of the homes and apartment buildings in Pittsfield have carbon monoxide detectors installed. This is in the wake of a law passed in 2005 that mandates such installations. The Perry residence did not have a carbon monoxide detector, according to the fire department.
According to Jennifer Meith, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, homeowners and landlords have been required since March 31, 2006, to have the devices installed in private homes and apartments.
Transient residential buildings such as hotels and motels, institutional buildings such as hospitals, nursing homes or jails and buildings owned by the commonwealth and housing authorities have until Jan. 1, 2008, to install carbon monoxide detectors, said Meith.
However, said Meith, the problem is that compliance is only determined by the sale, transfer or refinancing of a property, or if the fire department is called to a dwelling for another matter.
“We have no way of knowing how many homes are in compliance,” she said.
According to a story in the Boston Globe last year, compliance rates vary widely from town to town.
Buildings are required to have a carbon monoxide detector on every habitable level of the structure, including the basement.
Spaniol emphasized that his 20 percent figure was an “estimate,” but added that his department has been frustrated by the lack of compliance.
“We’ve tried advertising in the paper and on the radio, but we haven’t had much response,” he said. “Unfortunately, it takes something like (Saturday’s incident) to bring awareness up.”
Spaniol said that if a homeowner or landlord is found in non-compliance, the department will level an initial fine of $100, up to $1,000 for subsequent violations on the same property.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 400 people in the country die annually from carbon monoxide poisoning. There were about 3,000 carbon monoxide-related incidents last year in Massachusetts, according to the Department of Fire Services. Meith did not have a specific number of Massachusetts fatalities for 2006.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can cause nausea and headaches to those exposed in the short-term, and neurological damage or death to those exposed for a longer time.
Dangerous exposure levels, as established by the state Fire Marshall’s Office, are about eight parts per million over an eight-hour period, and 22 parts per million over the course of an hour.
Perry and his sister were exposed to about 500 parts per million over several hours, according to the fire department.