Carbon Monoxide Forces Evacuation of Complex

The residents of about 10 apartments in Santa Ana were evacuated from their complex early Sunday morning after firefighters found two people poisoned from carbon monoxide and the body of a man who apparently committed suicide with the dangerous gas.

Above-normal levels of carbon monoxide were found throughout the complex, according to Capt. Randy Black of the Santa Ana Fire Department.

A resident who smelled fumes called police, thinking there was a natural gas leak. When police arrived, they found a 40-year-old woman wandering outside her apartment, confused and disoriented. Inside the apartment was a 16-year-old girl, barely conscious. The two were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, Black said.

“The minute [firefighters] realized they had a carbon monoxide, they began evacuation of the entire complex,” Black said. “They monitored each apartment for the CO level and set up exhaust fans to get rid of the CO.”

In pajamas and bathrobes, about 55 men, women and children were roused from their sleep shortly before 7 a.m. on the 1600 block of South Evergreen Street.

“They stood out in the sidewalk,” Black said. “There was no time to change.”

Firefighters tracked the fumes to a garage beneath the apartment of the poisoning victims. There they found a truck, its engine running, and an unidentified man dead from what is believed to be carbon monoxide poisoning.

The woman and teenager were taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where they were listed Sunday evening in stable condition.