Three people were found dead in this house at 345 Blackstone St. in Providence Monday. The cause of death was carbon-monoxide poisoning, blamed on the faulty installation of a boiler. State law requires all homes to have carbon-monoxide detectors, but many do not.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE

State Fire Marshal Frank Sylvester has been a firefighter and chief for 40 years. In that time he has come to believe carbon-monoxide detectors are even more important in the home than smoke detectors.

“Smoke you can see, you can smell it, you can taste it,” he said yesterday. “Carbon monoxide is the silent killer and the only time many people think about it is when something like this happens. Then you think: Wow.”

Providence police on Monday found the bodies of three people in their Blackstone Street home, all of whom succumbed to carbon-monoxide poisoning, the state medical examiner has said. The police say an improperly installed boilercaused the deadly gas — which displaces oxygen in the bloodstream and causes suffocation — to accumulate in the house rather than be vented outside.

The deaths of the 46-year-old mother, her 14-year-old son and the woman’s boyfriend spurred city leaders yesterday to announce a campaign to educate people about the danger of carbon-monoxide poisoning. The threat knows no boundaries.

Each year fire departments around the country respond to tens of thousands of carbon-monoxide incidents.

In 2005 alone, U.S. fire departments responded to more than 61,100 calls in which higher-than-normal levels of the gas were found, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

The majority of those calls occur in the colder months, when people are using their furnaces or other heating systems and the exhaust of those systems are improperly vented. But the problem also occurs when the exhaust of cars, gasoline-powered leaf blowers and fuel-burning generators leak into living areas of homes.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 480 people died annually between 2002 and 2004 from carbon-monoxide exposure. The gas poisons about 1,500 people a year.

Providence Fire Chief George S. Farrell said his department answers a couple of calls each week for carbon-monoxide detectors going off. Many of those calls, as in every other community, are for low-battery warnings. But the threat is real.

Because carbon monoxide is undetectable without a monitoring device, people can be exposed and not know it. Sometimes they can even confuse the symptoms of poisoning — headaches, dizziness, nausea — with the flu or food poisoning.

In 2002, Rhode Island became one of the first states in the nation to require that each home have at least one carbon-monoxide detector before the house can be sold. Massachusetts has since passed a similar law.

The Rhode Island law came about after a North Providence family nearly died because of carbon-monoxide poisoning. The DeLuca family believed they had all been stricken by the flu when they came down with headaches and dizziness one evening about a week before Christmas in 1997.

Rocco DeLuca said the youngest of his two daughters, Ondriana, had woken up that night with a headache and called out for some Tylenol. His wife, Annmarie, got up, and he fell back to sleep. But when he awoke a short while later, he realized his wife hadn’t come back, so he headed downstairs and found her passed out on the kitchen floor. As he tried to revive her, his daughters called 9-1-1. Then they, too, passed out.

First responders rescued them. Investigators discovered a seam had popped on the exhaust pipe on the family’s natural-gas-fired furnace. Later, the gas company said the house contained carbon monoxide at 1,400 parts per million. By comparison, detectors sound at 35 parts per million. If help hadn’t arrived as soon as it did, DeLuca said, they all would have died.

Carbon-monoxide detectors sell for $25 and up.

State law requires all homes to have carbon-monoxide detectors, but as a practical matter — as Mayor David N. Cicilline said at a news conference yesterday — thousands of homes in the state do not have them. All newly constructed homes must have detectors that are “hard wired” into the electrical system with battery backup power sources. Existing three-family homes have until this July 1 to hard-wire their detectors to the home’s electrical system.

According to the Providence Fire Department, the state law requires at least one carbon monoxide detector on each occupied floor of a house. It should be located close to the bedrooms, since people are often most vulnerable at night when they are sleeping in confined spaces.

Unlike some other states, however, Rhode Island does not require that local fire departments certify the installation of new furnaces, said Sylvester. Chief Farrell said furnace inspections are better left up to building and trade inspectors, though he said firefighters often do check furnaces during carbon monoxide calls.

To prevent a buildup of carbon monoxide inside your home, fire officials advise:

• Make sure heating systems are installed by licensed professionals with the proper permits from the local permitting authorities. (Providence police have said they are trying to identify who installed the furnace on Blackstone Street.)

• Never use an oven or grill to heat your home.

• Don’t run your car, lawn mower or leaf blower in a garage that is attached to your house.

• Clear out the snow from around the vents of dryers, furnaces, stoves and fireplaces.

• Know the difference between the sounds of a smoke detector and a carbon-monoxide alarm. A carbon-monoxide alarm will sound four short beeps followed by a pause and then another four short beeps. A smoke detector will sound a more constant tone.

• Remember: a smoke detector is no substitute for a carbon-monoxide detector.

• Call your local fire department’s non-emergency number if you have questions about carbon monoxide. In Providence, you can call the department’s fire prevention hotline number: (401) 243-6034.

Cicilline said the incident that claimed three lives on Blackstone Street was entirely preventable.

“A $25 device,” he said, “would have prevented this tragedy.”Preventing carbon-monoxide poisoning

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil, or coal-burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year.

• Install a battery-operated carbon-monoxide detector in your home and check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall. If the detector sounds, leave your home immediately and call 911.

• Seek prompt medical attention if you suspect carbon-monoxide poisoning and are feeling dizzy, lightheaded or nauseous.

• Don’t use a generator, charcoal grill, camp stove or other gasoline or charcoal-burning device inside your home, basement or garage.

• Don’t run a car or truck inside a garage attached to your house, even if you leave the door open.

• Don’t use a stove or fireplace that isn’t vented.

• Don’t heat your house with a gas oven.

tmooney@projo.com