Carbon Monoxide Leak: Five lose their lives in suspected CO leak

According to an article by The Associated Press, fire officials suspect that carbon monoxide poisoning led to the deaths of five this week at a private home in Oxon Hill, Md.

According to the report, officials believe that a broken exhaust pipe caused the tragedy, leaking large amounts of carbon monoxide into the house. Although a typical carbon monoxide reading is zero to five parts per million, the reading taken by firefighters in the home was approximately 550 parts per million.

"Someone exposed to CO at that high a level could succumb probably within a couple of hours," said Prince George County Fire Department Spokesman Mark Brady.

Officials did not find a carbon monoxide detector in the home, giving safety advocates yet another tragic example of how devastating the effect can be when no system is in place to help detect and alert people to dangerously high levels of the odorless gas.

Motley Rice currently represents alleged victims of a carbon monoxide poisoning incident that occurred earlier this year in West Virginia. Like this week's incident, no carbon monoxide detectors were found at that scene.

Learn more about how Motley Rice catastrophic injury lawyers represent victims and families who have experienced serious injury or death resulting from unexpected or uncontrollable fires, unsafe working conditions, defective or dangerous consumer products, roadway defects and other negligent acts.