To feel a bit of idiot because I didnt know this?

[OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere]

I was listening to R4 last week and there was a peice on Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
A bereaved mother bravely shared her terrible story of losing her young son.

I knew Carbon Monoxide is leathal, I knew that you should check your boiler and I DO have an alarm.

What struck me about this story was that her poor boy wasnt killed by fumes from her boiler but by her neighbour's faulty boiler.

The fumes had seeped through the brickwork and killed her son.

I am pretty safety conscious. I have lost a child and unfortunately know many other bereaved parents. I have lost 'it wont happen to us' forever.
But it had not crossed my mind that this could happen.

How many of us live next to dodgy rented properties, people who dont bother to get their appliances checked and/or dont have alarms? I live next to a house that is rented to tenants and the owners live in a 'shed' in the garden. They dont look after the main house and their boiler is on the other side of mine.

I know this is a bit of a dodgy AIBU but I was really really struck by this woman's story and I thought it might be worth sharing.

Please get an alarm. They are quite cheap and I got mine from Lloyds Chemist when they were doing a special offer.

While all very sad, I think this sort of rsik needs to be kept in perspective - its very, very unlikely.

Thank you very much for this. I'm in NZ now and didn't think we would need one at the the start of the thread, we are in a detached (rented) property with only a wood buring fire for heat.

On reading the rest of the thread I remember that we have a gas BBQ outside the back door and realise the wood fire could be producing CO. I'll start looking for an alarm.

Thanks MRs Devere.

Thanks mrsDV

I have just instructed DH to buy a Carbon Monoxide alarm - we own our house and have just had our boiler serviced and fire at the same time, but I agree it is known as the silent killer, so better safe than sorry.

Whatmeworry - ok, so 'only' 50 people on average die from CO poisoning per year and around 200 people are diagnosed with symptoms of poisoning.

Surely the point is prevention goes a long way instead of coming across a friend/relative who has died needlessly????

It is not unlikely, it happens and for the sake of £15-£20 lives can be saved.

OMG I remember you!
Can't believe your neighbours are now living in the 'shed/gym' whatever monstrosity(realizes this is most unhelpful to current thread)

I thought that was covered by the 'people who cant be bothered' Bertie.
I will know next time to be far more specific

whatme odd post but well done for being the voice of reason.

Not many children drown in garden ponds every year. I still think its worth making sure they are safe if children have access to them.

Not many people are killed in house fires now that more people have smoke alarms and better awareness.. That isnt a good reason to get rid of them

A risk is a risk. And if your loved one is one of the few, statistics mean feck all.

It takes a few quid and a few minutes to prevent this happening.

stayathome the recent hot weather has made it quite difficult for them to hide the fact they are living in it. Despite their recently erected 'screen' of another shed and a swing seat placed infront of the bungalow.

God only knows what the ventilation is like in there, never mind the house they are renting out.

So the owners moved into the shed! Followed one of your posts about the 'erection' in your neighbour's garden.

Well done for highlighting this - very scary indeed that someone could be affected by what was going on next door.

Thanks for the reminder MrsDV.

Many years ago I lived in a downstairs flat. Our upstairs neighbours didn't realise they had a CO leak until the wife and her sister fell ill. The gas was seeping slowly out behind their kitchen wallpaper :(

They definitely need to start a public information campaign about this. There have been more cases of people bringing bbqs into tents recently than I've ever heard of before. And the same myths go round still, as is evidenced by this thread. It's only gas using properties for example. WRONG. We have only electricity BUT we also have a wood burning stove and our neighbours use gas so we have a CO alarm.

Thanks MrsDeVere. I've just ordered an alarm. I thought we had one but this reminded me to check and we haven't

Hi Mrs DeVere
I live in a rented property, non dodgy.
Next door neighbours house is privately owned, very dodgy!

Just to say privately owned properties can be just as dodgy - not normally as dodgy as your dodgy 'shed house in the garden' though!

Why/how your council doesnt seem to mind the flagrant abuse of planning law is beyond me! (another thread I know!)

Thanks for the reminder. just bought one from amazon. I meant to when I was in town and I forgot.

Not just boilers - when I was a child my brothers, who shared a room in our bungalow, nearly died because our neighbour left his car running on his drive to warm up, with the exhaust going straight into my brothers' room through an air brick.

Thanks for reminding me - I've ordered a spare alarm for my tent in which we'll be using a wood-burning stove.

The house-seepage thing is bloody scary. I second the suggestion of getting the fire brigade round to do a recce on your property if you haven't already.

free alarms and fit firemen, what's not to like?

rusty In the borough I used to live in (Islington) there are a lot of basement properties. It was not uncommon for this to happen.
I am glad your brother recovered.

My OH nearly died from a faulty boiler. He was told he had a fit. Weirdly his hosptial notes were amoungst some I was archiving. It was the boiler that almost killed him. He was only a little boy at the time.

Thanks for this mrsDV. We had an alarm in our first (gas boilered) place, and our current home is electric. I thought we therefore didn't need the detector here. I will now dig it back out.

I have twice been in a property with leaking C02.. the first a big landlord MOD, I had twice before called them to leaking gas and was slightly dismissed and the third time a lovely British Gas guy came out and started asking questions as to whether we had been feeling tired etc. We had a young baby so yes we were tired, he also asked if I always opened the small window, which I did, and then told us we had a major leak. He said the opened window had probably been our saviour. No wonder DS started to wheeze every day when I bought him downstairs

In our second house we had bought off a guy who had gone on and on as to how expensive it had been to replace the warm air heating. It was in a huge concrete cupboard in the middle of the house with vents into all the rooms. I know C02 doesn't have a smell but I could smell something 'different' with the way the boiler was burning and when I had a look could see the colour of the flames was not right and called BG out.

The boiler was only three years old but had not been serviced at all

I am bumping this thread because I want to remind people as we come to the camping season,

DO NOT USE BBQs inside your tent.

Please. They are accounting for more Co2 deaths than ever.

Please be careful.

I rent a property and I'm a landlord.

I didn't find MrsDeV's comment offensive in the slightest - my letting agency are a bit dodgy - the guy who came to do the gas check didn't do it properly for example, he signed the hob off as safe but didt actually check the ignition was working. However that isn't a reflection on me.

I am a very good landlord - my property has built in smoke detectors and a CO detector.