Published: March 18, 2009 11:41 pm      

Family escapes poisoning

BERLIN — Firefighters with air packs rescued four members of a Berlin family – all unconscious – from their home at about 3 a.m. Wednesday after they were overcome by carbon monoxide.

“As I understand it, the man was disoriented and got awake. He went to the others and found out they were not responding to him,” said Doyle Paul, president of the Berlin Volunteer Fire Company.

“He was able to call 911. The caller’s speech was slurred.”

Elwood Bowser was found on his kitchen floor, cell phone in hand dialed to county dispatchers – apparently saving his family.

“They were all incoherent,” said Jerry Parry, chief of the Berlin fire company.

“I don’t suspect it would have been much longer that they all would have been dead.”

Four helicopters flew Elwood and Joyce Bowser and their two school-age daughters to hospitals in Pittsburgh and Altoona.

No information on their conditions was available.

Parry said carbon monoxide readings inside the home were 800 to 1,000 parts per million.

“When we have 35 ppm, we tell people to get out of the house and get it checked,” the chief said.

Parry said the cause of the gas buildup was a chimney that became clogged and filled the house with fumes, carbon monoxide and smoke. He said the house at 311 Hays Mill Road in Brothersvalley Township was heated by coal furnaces in the basement.

The other three family members were carried from their beds on the second floor.

Three dogs in the home also were struggling but started to come around once they got outside into the fresh air.

“I’ve been a firefighter 39 years and I don’t recall an event with four helicopters at the same time,” Paul said. “It could have been a really deadly situation there.”

Carbon monoxide binds with the blood, restricting its ability to carry oxygen.

Parry said some in the Bowser family were being treated in hyperbaric chambers.

According to WebMD, the treatment involves putting the patient into a full-body chamber that uses oxygen under pressure, removing carbon monoxide.

Most people recover from carbon monoxide poisoning if they receive medical treatment quickly. Severe exposure can lead to heart or brain damage or death.

Crews were on the scene Wednesday for 90 minutes.

Others responding included the Meyersdale Volunteer Fire Company and ambulance companies from Berlin, Meyersdale and Somerset.