RPV: Missing heater plate is blamed for carbon monoxide poisoning. Health official urges safety checks.

By Larry Altman
DAILY BREEZE

An hour may have been all that separated a Rancho Palos Verdes family from death Wednesday as carbon monoxide fumes from their heater filled their house while they slept.

The Gharabegian family - Armen, 44, his wife, Hilda, 44, and their 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son - could have died because a plate that covers an opening into the ventilation system was not reinstalled when a filter was replaced, authorities said.

The opening allowed deadly and odorless carbon monoxide fumes to seep undetected into the four-bedroom home when the heater kicked on during the night, Southern California Gas Co. spokesman Peter Hidalgo said.

The Gharabegians were expected to recover and be released Wednesday evening. They spent the day in the Torrance Memorial Medical Center emergency room, where they received oxygen to flush the poison from their blood systems.

"It could have been an hour or two and they could have been dead," said Dr. Richard Sonner, the emergency room doctor who treated them. "Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of death from poisoning in our country."

Fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the Gharabegian house in the 28400 block of Cedarbluff Drive at 6:45 a.m. when they received a 911 call from Hilda Gharabegian.

Sonner said the mother had awakened and felt very dizzy. She opened the door for firefighters, who found the rest of her family unconscious, said Inspector Mike Brown, a county fire spokesman.

At the hospital, Sonner said, they showed all signs of carbon monoxide poisoning: flulike symptoms including headaches, nausea, weakness and difficulty walking. Each family member was conscious in the emergency room. Brown said carbon monoxide can be dangerous at 25 parts per million, but tests performed in the home showed a reading of 386 parts per million.

"It was near lethal," Brown said.

According to statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 200 people die each year in the United States from carbon monoxide produced by fuel-burning appliances including furnaces, ranges, water heaters and room heaters. Others die while burning charcoal in a home, vehicle, garage or tent, and others die from the exhaust from cars left running in attached garages.

Several thousand people are treated each year for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Sonner said that because the symptoms so closely resemble the flu, people should take note of whether their heaters are in good working order when they become sick.

"Anywhere a heater doesn't work, it can happen," he said.

Southern California Gas Co. workers examined the Gharabegians' heater and determined it was working properly. The missing plate on the ventilation system caused the problem, Hidalgo said.

Authorities said particular attention should be given to heating systems as temperatures get colder. The gas company is available to inspect natural gas appliances to make sure they are working properly, Hidalgo said.

Torrance fire Investigator Mike Freige said residents should have their furnaces regularly inspected, and suggested carbon monoxide detectors for the home.

Freige also suggested that the residents again check to see if their homes have attic furnaces manufactured by Consolidated Industries.

The furnaces have been responsible for numerous fires across the country.

Publish Date:October 31, 2002