Twelve Sent To Hospitals In Joliet After Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Joliet Fire department responded to approximately 100 call during the peak of last night’s storm. Numerous calls for wires down, tree limbs that had fallen on structures and loss of power to residences. No injuries reported from the storm but a carbon monoxide situation occurred due to a basement generator.

At about 1 a.m. the Joliet Fire Department received a 911 call for several people complaining of difficulty breathing at a residence, in the 100 block of Iowa Avenue. On arrival, crews found several people outside the structure feeling sick. Crews found the home’s Carbon Monoxide detector and found the structure to have extremely high CO levels reading over 1200 ppm. Twelve people were living at the residence. Due to the power outage in the area, the residents had a portable gas generator running in the basement that caused the elevated Carbon Monoxide levels. All twelve patients, ages 2 to 40 were transported by five ambulances to Silver Cross and St. Joe’s Hospitals.