GORHAM, Maine — After six people were rushed to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning in Gorham Monday, officials say the landlord was warned nearly a year ago to fix serious violations in the building but didn’t.
The Gorham fire chief says the landlord had known there were no working carbon monoxide detectors for nearly a year. This has prompted some residents to take matters into their own hands.
Darcy Lentz was one of six rushed to the hospital Monday with carbon monoxide poisoning. She says she’s lucky to be alive.
“My parents just bought me my very own carbon monoxide detector so I can see how much is in the air,” Lentz said. “It is scary and it is serious. I have a friend whose cousin passed away from this, so it’s serious.”
Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre says his department warned the property owners nearly a year ago that carbon monoxide detectors weren’t working.
“We did do an inspection back in April and sent a letter to the landlord requesting action and we did not get a response back,” Lefebvre said.
Over the past 24 hours the landlord has gotten proper detectors in each unit.
While everyone is physically OK, some residents are still shaken up about the incident.
“This is the first time anything like this has ever happened, so it’s definitely surprising and rather shocking,” one tenant, Alyssa Ferguson, said. “So I’m just glad we’re going to be moving forward.”
There are still a number of violations that are not life-threatening that Lefebvre says he’ll be following up with the landlord about.
The landlord did not returned calls for comment from CBS 13. But the Portland Press Herald reported Wednesday that building co-owner Donna Bolling said carbon monoxide detectors had been installed, but were disconnected by the tenants.
“No matter how many times you tell them not to do it, they like them [disconnected],” she told the Press Herald.
Lefebvre disagreed with Bolling’s assessment, telling the newspaper there were smoke detectors — some of which had been disconnected — in the apartments, but no carbon monoxide detectors.