Carbon monoxide poisoning sends family of six, three firefighters to hospital

Issaquah, Wash. — Three firefighters and a family of six, including two kids under 10 years old, are recovering after a potentially deadly gas seeped into a home in Issaquah.

Eastside Fire officials report that the youngest child is 17 months.

A house along Northeast Eagle Way had to be ventilated Saturday morning after gas seeped in.

Eastside firefighters were called at 7:25 a.m. after someone inside the home felt lethargic and started losing consciousness.

"Other family members started to experience the same identical symptoms. At the same time the crew also noticed a smell in the home," said Michael Boyle, deputy chief for Eastside Fire and Rescue.
    
The smell was car exhaust fumes extremely high levels of carbon monoxide, which has no smell or taste.

The family's Toyota van is equipped with a keyless ignition system, according to Boyle.

"A van had been running in there and had actually run out of gas so the assumption was that the vehicle had run all night long," he said.

A class action lawsuit was recently filed against 10 automakers citing 13 deaths linked to drivers with keyless ignition systems accidentally leaving their cars running in garages and causing carbon monoxide to seep into their homes.

The lawsuit claims a defect in some cars allows them to keep running even after the key-fob is no longer in the car.

"It's easy to do, we pull in our garage, we're coming and going, we think we're going to run another errand, we leave our car running and we don't and we leave the car running in the garage," said Boyle.

It's not known if that happened to the family in Issaquah.

All six people, including two kids and two grandparents, were taken to Swedish Medical Center.

The three firefighters who were first on the scene went to another hospital out of precaution.

Everyone is expected to be OK.

Eastside Fire told KIRO 7 they did not find any carbon monoxide detectors inside the house.

Carbon monoxide detectors are required in new homes statewide.

The fire department said it's important to have and check the detectors every year.

KIRO