3 taken to hospital after carbon monoxide leak at Vancouver home

Three people are in hospital and six others are recovering after they were poisoned by carbon monoxide at a home in South Vancouver.

Paramedics and fire crews were called to the house in the 6100 block of Tyne Street after someone reported chest pains around 11:30 p.m. PT Tuesday. Firefighters went in first with paramedics close behind.

When the paramedics got inside, carbon monoxide detectors worn on their vests started going off.

"As soon as they entered the house, they backed out," Dave Rosenlund, battalion chief with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, said Wednesday morning.

"Fire crews got everybody out of the house and got everybody into the ambulance very lucky."

The man who was sufferingchest painsand two children were taken to hospital. Rosenlund couldn't confirm their conditions.

The battalion chief said it's believed the"plugged-up" exhaust pipe of a hot water heat exchanger was somehow causing gas to leak back into the home. There weren't any carbon monoxide detectors in the house which, Rosenlund said, people need to have installed.

What you need to know about carbon monoxide detectors

6 years ago

Duration 1:32

Jonathan Gormick of the Vancouver Fire Department answers the top five questions about carbon monoxide safety.

The gas is found in the fumes produced by burning fuel.Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can include headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.

Breathing in too much carbon monoxide can kill a person in minutes, as the gas replaces oxygen in the blood.

Rash of poisonings

Last month, at least 21 people were sent to Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) for carbon monoxide poisoning. Thirteen were working in the same Vancouver office and five were poisonedat their homein Barriere, B.C.

On Boxing Day, a mother and her five-year-old and three-year-old children were overcome by thecolourless, odourless gas seeping into the woman's car inAbbotsford, B.C.

VGHis the only hospitalin the province with a hyperbaric chamber used to treat the poisoning.

All 21people were later discharged from hospital.