Unvented Heater’s Carbon Monoxide Fumes Kill Eight
Eight people found dead at a Memphis apartment complex were killed by carbon monoxide from a hot water heater that was spread by an air conditioner, authorities said Tuesday.
The six teen-agers and two adults, discovered by a visitor Monday night, had been dead about 12 hours before their bodies were found, said police spokesman Dan Chalk, quoting the Shelby County medical examiner.
“He put the cause of death as . . . acute carbon monoxide poisoning,” Chalk said.
A vent pipe on the apartment’s hot water heater was not connected properly, he said. Leaking carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas, was picked up by air conditioning ducts nearby.
Chalk said one of the victims, Theodes Rogers, 25, visited a neighbor early Monday and joked that he might have to call an ambulance because his companions were complaining of nausea.
It was the last time any of them was seen alive.
Paula Payne, a spokeswoman for the city utility company, said carbon monoxide was detected throughout the apartment.
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