Groups aim to protect homes from smoke, carbon monoxide
It has been almost five years since the Parrish family was found dead in their Pocatello home from carbon monoxide poisoning. Since then, their relatives have made it their mission to make sure every home has a carbon monoxide detector.
“You can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t feel it, you can’t taste it,” said Brian Curtis, a firefighter with the Idaho Falls Fire Deptartment and a relative of the Parrish family. “It’s invisible. They call it the silent killer.”
Curtis is keeping the memory of his brother-in-law, sister-in-law and two nephews alive following their deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide typically comes from unburned or incomplete combustion of fossil fuels.
The poisoning can happen “if you have natural gas coming into your home that fires your water heater or your furnace,” Curtis said. “It can be propane. It can be coal. A wood stove will produce carbon monoxide, the smoke from the wood. The fuel from generators when generators are fired and running, the exhaust from them, carbon monoxide.”
His family’s foundation, the No CO Foundation, is partnering with the Idaho Falls Fire Department and the American Red Cross of Greater Idaho to install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in Idaho Falls homes throughout the month of February. The detectors only take about five minutes to install and run on batteries. It is recommended that one be installed on every floor in living spaces.
“They have different types that you can even just plug into a wall and be functional,” Curtis said. “Others you can install right on a wall.”
Taking the time to install a CO detector could be the difference between life and death.
“Everybody thinks that it can’t happen to me and it’s not an issue, it’s not important,” Curtis said. “And the fact is, it’s important to us. And we don’t want anyone else to lose family or loved ones through this kind of thing.”
Carbon monoxide detectors can be found at any hardware store. If you have questions about smoke or CO detectors, you can call the Idaho Falls Fire Department at 208-612-8497. You can get more information through the No CO Foundation website or the American Red Cross of Greater Idaho.
