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Crying toddler saves family from CO poisoning

Jan. 21, 2016, Kamloops, B.C. - Fifteen-month-old Celia Ruppel is being credited with saving her life, the lives of her parents, and the family's several cats and dogs after carbon monoxide filled their Kamloops, B.C., home.

It happened last Friday when the toddler woke in the middle of the night, crying and alerting her parents, who quickly realized that they, Celia and the pets were at the point of collapse.

Celia's dad, Kyle Ruppel, says they got out of the house before he almost passed out and, while friends tended to the pets, the entire family was rushed to Vancouver for treatment.

Back in their Kamloops home, with a new furnace replacing the one that pumped the deadly, odourless gas throughout the house, Ruppel is reminding all property owners to install carbon monoxide detectors.

Firefighters in the suburban Victoria community of Langford echo the advice, noting they have responded to six carbon monoxide calls in the last two months.

In each case they say it was a detector that warned residents to get out, but in two of the calls an occupant of the home still needed treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.

January 21, 2016 
By The Canadian Press