Hibachi Deaths: Sadly, Story Is Not Uncommon

The small apartment with an Asian good luck symbol over the door was locked up, and garbage was scattered along a driveway that ran in front of the home and a four-car garage. Diapers, a baby walker and blankets were mixed in with the trash.

Next to an old beige couch in the yard was the culprit, a hibachi with a few coals inside and a pile of charcoal briquettes next to it. On Wednesday, a lethal dose of colorless, odorless carbon monoxide from the squat, Japanese-style barbecue silently overcame the Nguyen family as they used it for heat.

The husband and his 3-year-old son, who was handicapped, died where they slept. His wife was critically injured. Only their 2-week-old daughter escaped relatively unscathed.

Carbon monoxide “can sneak up on you, then it is too late,” said Jess Hernandez, a battalion chief with the Santa Ana Fire Department. “You should not use anything with an open flame for heat unless the house is well-ventilated. But this is commonplace for the poor and our non-English speaking citizenry.”

Police said the Nguyens were discovered about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday by a friend who dropped by their apartment at 718 N. Figueroa St. The friend saw three members of the family sprawled on a bed and on the floor of a front room. The baby was found in a bedroom.

Investigators for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Department said Nghiep Tan Nguyen, 39, and his son, Jollivet, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. They listed the deaths as accidental.

Nguyen’s wife, Canh Thi, who is in her early 20s, remained in critical condition Thursday night in the intensive care unit at the Medical Center of Garden Grove. She is apparently in a coma, according to her relatives.

Sophia, the family’s infant daughter, was released from Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where she was treated after the incident. A cousin took the little girl home.

“Unfortunately, this type of thing is not really all that rare,” Santa Ana Police Sgt. Roger Scharf said.

Public safety officials said that many people, particularly immigrants and the poor, are unaware that open flames from barbecues and hibachis can slowly fill an unventilated home with carbon monoxide.

Hernandez said, however, that it is difficult to determine how many people use barbecues and other open-flame devices to heat their homes. Deaths and injury occasionally occur, he said, but the last time Hernandez heard of a carbon monoxide poisoning similar to the Nguyen case was several years ago.

Although no countywide statistics are available, Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said this type of asphyxiation is not uncommon and that other people have died using wood burning stoves and barbecues. He noted that boaters have died while barbecuing in their cabins.

“We’ve seen this happen to people who use those little Sterno stoves in vans or other enclosed spaces,” Young said. “These poor people were only trying to keep themselves warm.”

Santa Ana code enforcement officers went to the Nguyen home Thursday afternoon to look for possible violations of the city’s housing code, but the small garage apartment was locked and they could not get in.

Inspectors said they plan to cite the owner of the property for several violations, including the installation of an illegal wooden porch roof and excessive trash on the premises.

They also said the owner would be required to provide written verification that the apartment’s heater works or else face another citation. A check of the premises indicated that the home had power for the wall heater.

City records show that the heater was installed in 1987, when the garage was converted into an apartment. The apartment was approved by the Building Department, and the heater was working at that time.

Property records list the owner as Tran Mailan of Santa Ana. Mailan, who does not live on the property, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Cong Nguyen, who lives in the front house on the property, said he does not have any heat in his home and uses blankets to keep warm. He said he is not related to the Nguyen family and did not know them well.

“It’s sad. A family died,” he said.

Ruth Serrano, a neighbor across the street, estimated that the family had lived in the neighborhood less than a year. It is a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood, so the family did not socialize with the neighbors, she said.

A woman who claimed to be Canh Thi’s sister but refused to give her name said the family had been in the United States about eight years. The boy, who was confined to a wheelchair, was a student at Sycamore Special Center in Tustin, a school for the severely handicapped.

“We don’t know anything right now,” said a friend of the family, who also declined to identify himself.

Times staff writers Lily Eng and Gebe Martinez contributed to this story.