Stayner Home Filled With Mustard Gas Due To Faulty AC Unit
Gas Set Off Carbon Monoxide Alarm
Not a typical call for Clearview Fire to a Stayner home Thursday morning. It started off as a simple Carbon Monoxide alarm call, but after Clearview fire showed up, checked around, and smelled the air, it was determined it wasn’t CO tripping the alarm… it was mustard gas.
Coming from the air conditioner.
Interesting call, crews attended a residence for CO alarm activation, picked up 200ppm at front door, masked up and re-entered but could not find source. Issue was the a/c unit pumping phosgene (mustard) gas into home due to unit failure. No injuries thanks to properly worn ppe
— Roree Payment (@CFES_DC) July 26, 2018
Clearview’s Deputy Fire Chief Roree Payment tells our newsroom a rupture of one of the coolant lines was spitting material onto a super heated element within the air conditioner, spewing chemical gas back into the home.
A house sitter arrived to find the CO alarm sounding and called the fire service. When firefighters arrived, Deputy Chief Payment tells us they went into the home wearing gear designed to protect them from carbon monoxide. It wasn’t until after they had removed the gear that they could smell the mustard gas and call in Enbridge to lend a hand.
Nobody was home at the time of the leak, with no injuries reported.
