A mistake... that turned out good!
Although she’d had a horrendous headache the night before, Natalie Thomas was feeling good enough to join her family as they settled down to watch a movie recently.
Former Cannon Falls residents now living in Hudson, WI, Natalie, novelist and oil painter and her husband Brent, a photographer at Midwest-CBK were planning to watch one of Natalie’s late father's favorites, “Young Frankenstein”. Along with their children Cassie, Nicholas, and Savannah they settled in for a relaxing family gathering.
But a short time later, an unusual event took place.
Natalie explained, “It was at the part of the film where the lightning flashes and Gene Wilder, playing Dr. Frankenstein, talks about mortality, being alive, etc. - and that’s when the beeping started.
Yes, that’s when the Thomas’ carbon monoxide detector gave off its annoying sound.
Information from Wikipedia explains that since carbon monoxide is colorless, tasteless and odorless... detection in a home environment is impossible without such a warning device.
But this style of detector didn’t give any information on its dial. Brent searched their garage for a second device that displayed numbers. When it was plugged in they were horrified to see that it registered nearly 100 ppm.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission website:
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission website:
As CO levels increase and remain above 70 ppm, symptoms become more noticeable and can include headache, fatigue and nausea. At sustained CO concentrations above 150 to 200 ppm, disorientation, unconsciousness, and death are possible.
Unknown to the Thomases, the exhaust stack of their furnace had been blocked by an ice build-up from the vapor freezing, which caused carbon monoxide to build up in their house.
With this warning news, Brent climbed up onto the roof, unclogged the vent and they watched the numbers go back down to zero.
No more headache for Natalie.
They figured the ice might have been building up for a couple of days.
And they wondered what one more night would have brought them in their sleep.
Natalie wrote on her Facebook page about another curious angle on this experience. Remember the original CO detector that had warned them of the danger? They found out the beeping hadn't been coming from that unit! It was actually from the smoke alarm on the ceiling. It was the low battery warning.
Natalie concluded: “... if we had not made the mistake of thinking that the beeping was coming from the CO detector, we'd have never checked it with the second detector. Ummm... Divine intervention?... Happy to be alive, and that our family is safe.”
And with that comforting thought - that sometimes
a mistake can turn out to be a good thing - we wish you a Happy New Year 2014!
Holidays with the Thomas family - feeling good! Savannah, Nicholas, Brent, Cassie and Natalie.
