Update: Blacksburg Carbon Monoxide Leak Sends Many to Hospitals
posted 6:31 am Mon August 20, 2007 - Blacksburg, VA
Where did everyone else who lived there sleep last night? Well, not in that building. Apartment personnel put everyone up in a hotel over night. Some were allowed back in, just to get their things. But crime scene tape still surrounds the building and officers are treating this as an active investigation.
Blacksburg Police say someone noticed a suspicious odor shortly after 11:00 Sunday morning. After checking rooms in Building 1306, they noticed five girls unresponsive in a second floor apartment. They were rushed to the hospital, others evacuated from the building.For the city of
Capt. Bruce Bradbery, Blacksburg Police - "I was standing on the drill field ready for a memorial service when this call went out and the headlines in the papers this morning were about the Morva anniversary, you know, enough is enough. And now we have five more kids who are just clinging to life."
We talked to one concerned mother whose daughter also lives in the building. Carol Gordon said she was outraged when she learned carbon monoxide detectors are not required by law in buildings like this, like they are in
So she took it upon herself to invest about $800 for a CO detector for all 16 apartments in this building.
Carol Gordon, Concerned Mother - "My daughter is moving in here and I'm not letting her stay here without one. I wanna be sure!"
Just to give you an idea of how much carbon monoxide was in this building when first responders arrived, CO is measured in parts per million. Police tell us at 25 per million, you start feeling the effects, like headaches.
The first reading taken from the apartment where the five women were found, was 500 parts per million. Quite a difference.
This all happened just as school is starting back up for what many had hoped would be a fresh start for Virginia Tech, after a deadly year. Now, instead of preparing for classes, many students are waiting for word that everything is safe.
Rachel Evans, Complex Resident - "We woke up with dizziness, headache, nausea, lightheaded."
Brittany Kurty, Complex Resident - "Everyone in the apartment was complaining of a headache, very nauseous just not good."
Rachel Evans and Brittany Kurty moved into building 1306 Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning an ambulance was carrying them away.
Evans - "They put us on oxygen for 4 hours. They checked our carbon monoxide level a couple of times just to see if it was going down."
But they're lucky. They live on the third floor. The girls below them never knew what hit them.
Evans - "They pulled all of the girls out and they were just laying outside the door. They looked lifeless just laying on top of each other. It was just so terrible just seeing something like that."
Kurty - "They weren't really moving at all. They were just lying there."
It all came on a very emotional day, a day dedicated to the 32 victims of the campus shootings on April 16th and the shootings involving escaped inmate William Morva. But President Charles Steger took time out to visit these girls in the hospital.
Evans - "I was pretty out of it but he just shook my hand for a minute and asked me how I was feeling and if the University could do anything for any of us."
Right now the fate of the girls on the 2nd floor is unknown. But for the rest, day one of school comes with a lesson already learned.
Evans - "Carbon monoxide detector for the rest of my life. I know that and just don't take life for granted that's for sure."
As for Monday, President Steger says it's up to students from that apartment building, to decide if they want to go to class.
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