Bavaria: heating engineer saves lives of residents

Bavaria
“The next morning everyone would have been dead”: heating engineer saves lives of residents

A heating technician found elevated levels of carbon monoxide in a house – just in time. The reason for the high air pollution was wood pellets.

Apparently, the residents of some houses in Bavaria only narrowly escaped a catastrophe. They owe their lives to an attentive heating technician who identified a problem with the heating system in good time.

As reported by several local media, a resident of a house in Trosdorf noticed a strange smell. The heating engineer was then summoned to check on things. This found a greatly increased carbon monoxide value, which was more than seven times as high as permitted. The heating technician reacted quickly and apparently in the right way: he had all residents evacuated and alerted the fire brigade.

Wood pellets almost became a deadly trap

Reason were pellets, which were used for heating. Normally, the carbon monoxide level in pellets is checked before delivery to ensure safe heating. In this case, however, the wood pellets were apparently delivered too early and still contained a lot of carbon monoxide. If the concentration in the air is too high, the gas can quickly lead to death. The danger often goes unnoticed because carbon monoxide is invisible and odorless.

This is exactly what would have happened in Trosdorf by a hair’s breadth if the heating engineer hadn’t raised the alarm in good time. The residents of the house in which the dangerous value was measured were rescued just as quickly as those in two other buildings that were also supplied with pellets from the same batch. Significantly increased carbon monoxide levels were also measured there. The gas would have spread further in the house and probably led to a “silent death”.

“The next morning everyone would have been dead,” said district fire inspector Andreas Schnapp. A specialist company transported the dangerous pellets away. Investigations were initiated against the supplier on suspicion of negligent bodily harm.

Sources: “Picture” / “Mercury” / “Bayreuth Daily Journal”

See the video: The gas price brake is followed by the heating cost subsidy: everyone who heats with oil, liquid gas or wood pellets can hope for money from the state: up to 2,000 euros are possible.