Fume Detectors Create Chaos for Chicagoans

Freak weather set off oversensitive carbon monoxide detectors across the city on Thursday, deluging firefighters with more than 1,800 emergency calls from worried residents.

The detectors, required in city residences since Oct. 1, let out their high-pitched beeps late Wednesday and early Thursday, apparently because of an unusually high level of carbon monoxide in the air, officials said.

“In a lot of cases, the carbon monoxide level in the homes was less than it was outside,” Fire Superintendent Raymond Orozco said.

A leading manufacturer of detectors--Aurora, Ill.-based First Alert--has agreed that its devices were too sensitive and will offer refunds to residents who return them by Jan. 31, Mayor Richard M. Daley said.

Also, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., which certifies the detectors, has agreed to set new standards requiring the devices to be less sensitive, less prone to accumulate carbon monoxide and easier to clear once they go off, Daley said.

The mayor told a news conference that the intent of the ordinance was to save lives. “However, it’s clear the city can’t dispatch firefighters to thousands of homes when Mother Nature decides to change the weather,” he said.

Because of the flood of calls, Orozco asked residents not to call 911 merely because their detectors were going off.

“If you’re not experiencing any symptoms” of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or headaches, “and your alarm goes off, open your windows and ventilate your home,” he said.

The Fire Department will no longer send trucks and ambulances unless symptoms of poisoning are suffered, he said.

Of the 1,852 calls logged by 911 in 24 hours, only one resulted in a hospitalization, Orozco said.

The high level of carbon monoxide was blamed on an unseasonably warm weather system that trapped the gas from vehicle exhaust and other sources close to the ground, said Tim Seeley of the National Weather Service. Thursday’s high was near 60 degrees and there was virtually no wind, despite the fact that winter had just begun.

Ironically, there was a major case of carbon monoxide poisoning early Thursday in suburban Wilmette, Ill.

Four adults and five children were hospitalized after being poisoned by carbon monoxide leaking from a faulty furnace. The home had a detector, but it failed to go off, fire officials said.