City needs to address urgent safety issue
If it seems like we’re shouting from the rooftops of either Hotel Emma or Hampton Inn and Suites, it’s only because we want it to be heard that carbon monoxide is a silent killer and something to take very seriously. A sense of urgency about this issue is lacking in the city of San Antonio. For the second time in two months, guests at a San Antonio hotel became sick due to carbon monoxide poisoning. This should never happen.
On Feb. 16 this Editorial Board wrote that the city was stepping up its notification process to let sleeping dwelling units, such as hotels and motels, in the area know about a desperate need for carbon monoxide detectors. All to the good, but not good enough.
This was in response to a carbon monoxide incident at Hotel Emma. The hotel lacked the required carbon monoxide, or CO, detectors. Somehow this was missed during the permitting process in 2012. The shortcoming was revealed after 15 hotel employees on Jan. 11 were sent to the hospital with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Then on Feb. 24, as the city was working through its list of properties to notify about the CO alarm requirement, Hampton Inn and Suites on Soledad Street downtown was evacuated. In that incident, fire officials discovered high levels of carbon monoxide, and five people were taken to the hospital.
Joe Arrington, public information officer for the San Antonio Fire Department, confirmed that CO alarms were present in some areas of the hotel and that pool heating equipment was related to the release of carbon monoxide.
Arrington also said that the San Antonio Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Division has been “actively working to inspect properties requiring CO monitoring.”
San Antonio’s building code requirements follow international building and fire codes, which require carbon monoxide alarms in sleeping dwelling units, according to Michael Shannon, the city’s Development Services Department director. The code specifically requires the alarms for buildings with fuel-burning appliances or fuel-burning fireplaces.
According to Arrington, as of Wednesday, using data from the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association and additional research, 78 percent of facilities identified by SAFD (more than 320) have been inspected. The remaining 22 percent are in the process of an inspection, or one is scheduled.
We’d like to see a greater sense of urgency. It’s incredibly frustrating that a second hotel would experience this while the city conducts these inspections. Where is the business outreach and messaging?
There have been two near-death experiences within weeks of each other.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that every year, at least 430 people die in the United States from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. The CDC notes that people who are sleeping or who have been drinking can die from carbon monoxide poisoning before ever experiencing symptoms.
The CDC confirmed that batterypowered or battery backup carbon monoxide detectors should be in use in any scenario where fossil fuel is burned, such as situations involving fuel-burning furnaces and appliances, vehicles or generators.
While a methodical notification process is needed in some instances, this, however, is an emergency. One that warrants a notification blitz to all hotels and motels and other sleeping dwelling units.
At the very least, alert every hotel and motel. Then schedule a follow-up inspection.
Lack of carbon monoxide detectors has become a life or death matter