The house Reyes Amilcar Amaya and his wife Mailin Lopez rented at 89 Sumner Ave., in Central Falls.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

CENTRAL FALLS — Reyes Amilcar Amaya and his wife, Mailin Lopez, had just come back from church Saturday night and wanted to warm up some milk for their 15-month-old baby, so they started up the gasoline-powered generator in the basement to power a makeshift stove.

On Thursday, the power to the single-family house they were renting on 89 Sumner Ave. had been turned off after the owner lost the house to foreclosure March 31. A friend had given the couple the generator. Saturday night was the first time they turned it on.

They gave the baby his milk and turned off the generator and went to bed around 9:30 p.m. After 10 p.m., Amaya said Lopez started complaining of a headache and the baby started crying. After a while, he had a headache and he and his wife were coughing and vomiting. He passed out twice.

“It was so bad. We were so sick. I thought I was going to die there with my son,” Amaya said.

They managed to reach an aunt in Attleboro who came to pick them up around 7 a.m. Sunday and took them and three other people in the house to Rhode Island Hospital. Two of them were treated at St. Joseph Hospital, according to Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Dion.

A spokesperson at Rhode Island Hospital confirmed that Karen Lopez, 19, was released Monday from the hospital. One-year-old Jovanny Lopez and 15-month-old Ever Amaya, Amilcar’s son, were treated and released Sunday, she said. The Fire Department also listed Evelin Lopez-Medina, 28, as a victim. Amaya said all had been released from the hospital.

The Fire Department found a generator in the basement and no electricity or heat in the home.

“A gas-fired generator emits carbon monoxide automatically. It’s like running a car in the garage and not opening the door,” Dion said. “They are lucky they are alive.

“A generator has to be run outside. We’re not happy with the fact it had to be used at all. People living in the house without electricity take creative measures.”

He said it was not unusual for people to stay living in a foreclosed home, but the city has an aggressive program to board up houses once a bank forecloses on them.

Amaya and former owner Janet Diangelo, of West Warwick, differ on what led up to the incident.

Amaya said he and his wife and child moved into the house in January and put down a $1,300 deposit, but after a month notified Diangelo that they would be leaving. But Diangelo told them that she would help and agreed to let them pay $200 per week plus electrical costs, he said. Amaya said that Diangelo collected $200 from him on March 28 and told him that day the bank would foreclose on the house March 31 and took the stove.

“They told me we could live here free because the bank could not kick us out. They offered to keep the utilities on for an additional $500,” Amaya said.

Diangelo said there was a language barrier. She does not speak Spanish and the family does not speak English.

She said that one of her associates, whom she would not name, collected $200 rent on March 24. She said the family was told a couple of days later that the bank was taking the house but if they wanted to keep electricity on until April 15, they would have to pay the $110 that was due on the electric bill.

Diangelo said that the couple originally said they would live in the house and pay $1,400 a month but later said they could not afford it and brought in another family.

The family cannot return to the house because the director of code enforcement for the city condemned the house. “We don’t want people to go back inside,” Dion said.

Yesterday, the city posted two bright orange stickers on the white, one-floor house that warned people that the building was unsafe and forbade them from entering.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had incorrectly referred to the location as Sumner Street.

tpina@projo.com