Firefighters detect dangerous levels of CO in city building
BGE detects cable with water damage
Baltimore Gas & Electric crews found an underground electrical cable with water damage after firefighters detected dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in a Baltimore building on Sunday afternoon.
A Baltimore City Fire Department hazmat team responded around 1 p.m. to a fire alarm in the 200 block of East Lexington Street downtown. Firefighters detected carbon monoxide levels of 400 parts per million in a seven-story building with a restaurant on the first floor and offices, spokesperson Kevin Cartwright said.
According to the U.S. Product Safety Commission, sustained carbon monoxide levels above 150 parts per million can be deadly. The current permissible exposure limit set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is 50 parts per million.
Entrance to the Knickerbocker
building at the intersection of Guilford Avenue and East Lexington Street was prohibited around 2:30 p.m. The building dates back to 1874 and is a survivor of the Great Fire of Baltimore in 1904.
Firefighters searched the area and found six maintenance hole covers nearby with elevated levels of carbon monoxide but did not immediately find evidence of an underground electrical fire.
“We were questioning whether there was some kind of underground electrical fire, but there is no significant indicator of that as of this minute,” Cartwright said. “So that does not appear to be the case.”
BGE crews found an underground network cable that sustained water damage. Spokesperson Richard Yost said Sunday night that carbon monoxide levels had dissipated by 6:40 p.m.
“We did identify a defective network cable,” Yost said. “The manhole had water in it. It was full of water. We had to bring in a pump truck.”
Yost added that no buildings lost power.