Carbon monoxide a threat as residents try to keep warm

NEW CUMBERLAND - As snow from a new storm was falling Tuesday afternoon, Hancock County officials warned residents to use extreme caution when operating heating devices that emit carbon monoxide.

"We just want people to be very cautious," said Hancock County Sheriff Michael White. "We've had a couple close calls, but we've been lucky so far. Everyone is doing fine now."

White was referring to six occupants of a Hardins Run Road home hospitalized Saturday evening due to carbon monoxide emissions from a generator. New Manchester firefighters responded.

"It's tough because people are using whatever means possible to try to keep warm," said New Manchester Fire Chief Roger Stewart. New Manchester firefighters responded Tuesday to a Byson Lane home where two residents complained of nausea due to carbon monoxide exposure.

The residents were treated at Weirton Medical Center, Stewart said.

This time the culprit was a propane heater, he said.

Sharon Ulbright, Hancock County Office of Emergency Management public information officer, said Tuesday about 1,200 county residents are still without power, many since Friday when a weekend storm began that dumped up to two feet of snow in some areas.

"We don't know what this new storm is going to bring," White said. His department has been working with emergency management to get food and other supplies to residents who are snowed in from the weekend storm. Most recently deputies assisted in snow removal so a fuel delivery truck could reach an elderly woman's home.

"She's OK," White said. "She just needed to get the truck close enough to the house to get the fuel oil in," he said.

Lorrie Byo, director of the Hancock County Animal Shelter Foundation on Gas Valley Road, he said carbon monoxide exposure has also been a problem for the county's four-legged residents. She was assisting the county dog warden's staff Tuesday in sheltering 10 cats from the Byson Lane home. She said shelter officials cared for a dog from the Hardins Run Road family until the homeowner picked it up yesterday.

She said the shelter, already full of dogs and cats waiting to be adopted, is also temporary home to county dogs and cats while their families are staying with friends and family members who do have power and heat.

Byo said many county residents are scrambling to find temporary shelter for their pets. Residents are staying with friends or relatives who don't always have room for the pets, she said.

Ulbright said Tuesday the 1,000 Grant Public Service customers should have full water service restored by Thursday. She stressed, however, that even though residents may have full service restored, they must continue to boil water for all uses.

Ulbright said Grant Public Service customers should continue to boil water until she issues a press release canceling the boil order.

Area fire departments are still offering water to Grant Public Service customers, who are reminded to bring their own containers to be filled. Times and locations are 1 to 5 p.m. at Newell station, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at New Manchester and New Cumberland stations, she said.

Public showers remain open at the Wells Building on Washington Street, Newell noon to 6 p.m. today through Thursday, Ulbright noted.