In Iowa column: Close calls and thank-yous

I had a scare this month. My neighbor called me at work because my carbon-monoxide alarm was going off.

She could hear it from her house, and she was worried. The loud, insistent blares of the alarm were hard to ignore.

When I got home, I opened the kitchen door, saw which alarm was making all the noise, grabbed my cat, who came running when I called her, and got out of there.

I called 911 while my neighbor called MidAmerican. Calling 911 first, I later was told, was the right move. The fire department showed up, and a firefighter stuck a gauge through the door, which confirmed the dangerous levels of carbon-monoxide gas inside.

He suited up with a protective mask to investigate further and open windows while other firefighters unloaded giant fans to help ventilate my house.

MidAmerican also arrived quickly and found nothing wrong with any of my gas-powered appliances - my stove, furnace or water heater.

The operating theory MidAmerican and the fire department came up with was a truck that was parked in my driveway may have been blowing exhaust through an open door and right into my basement.

A buildup of exhaust fumes like that can be deadly - an Epworth teen died in April after the car he was in filled with carbon monoxide due to a defective exhaust system.

Before they left, a firefighter handed me the carbon-monoxide monitor from my house and told me it likely saved both my cat's life and my own.

Carbon monoxide sometimes is called 'the silent killer.” The gas is odorless, so if exposed you won't necessarily know something is amiss.

You may have flu-like symptoms, or you may pass out before you realize anything is wrong. Or you may go to sleep and never wake up.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 400 Americans die from unintentional carbon-monoxide poisoning not linked to fires each year. An additional 20,000 visit the emergency room and more than 4,000 are hospitalized.

We hear a lot about the need to test our fire alarms regularly, and rightly so. Here's my appeal to you to test your carbon monoxide alarm as well.

If you don't have one, they're on sale at any hardware store or large retailer. They ideally should be able to plug into the wall, with a battery backup in case the power goes out.

You should have one on each level of your house, and you should replace them every five to seven years, as they lose sensitivity over time. Pushing the test button won't tell you if your alarm has lost sensitivity, unfortunately - it will only tell you if the alarm itself still is working.

I'm writing this column not only to ask you to make sure your family is protected, but also to say thank you to the firefighters who responded so quickly.

And thanks to my neighbor, who realized something was wrong and acted on it. Without her, my cat would have been exposed to the gas for five more hours before I got home from work.

I hope I can repay my neighbor's good deed forward by passing on this public service announcement to you. Before this month, I never gave the monitor in my kitchen much thought. But you never know what small thing might save a life.

l Comments: (319) 398-8434; alison.gowans@thegazette.com