New York – A restaurant in a Long Island, NY shopping mall was the scene of a deadly carbon monoxide poisoning incident three days ago. Hospital officials confirmed that the manager of the restaurant was killed by the gas leak that had filled the basement of the business. Investigators report that the cause of the accidental poisoning was from a leaking flue pipe from the building’s water heater. Unfortunately, the hazardous condition was not discovered until the victim was found unconscious in the basement and more than two dozen other became sick during the incident. Citizens who were eating there, workers and emergency responders were amongst the sick victims that required hospitalization following their exposure to the chemical gas. Emergency department staff successfully treated most of the ill patients but were unable to revive the unconscious worker, who died in the hospital. Emergency room experts explain that carbon monoxide gas is odorless and colorless but can be detected with a relatively inexpensive detector that can be purchased in most hardware stores. However, current construction, building and fire codes do not require these devices in a location where people don’t sleep. This has some public safety advocates distressed at the lack of safety in this regard. They contend that a simple and inexpensive piece of equipment could have easily warned potential victims of the danger. Despite this, businesses are required to properly maintain all equipment in their building in order to prevent dangerous situations such as this. A report shows that the restaurant was issued a ticket with possible fine for faulty equipment. Maintenance specialists say that this could have occurred due to improper maintenance of equipment in the building. Read more about the hazardous condition that led to the death of the worker in this article.

Illustrative photo by Mondberg (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons