Eleven people; six adults, five children taken to the hospital after carbon monoxide leak

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Six adults and five children are recovering after a carbon monoxide leak inside a home sent them to the hospital.

The call came in around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, January 14th, from a home near N. 27th Street and Townsend Street.

A machine alerted the Milwaukee Fire Department to a carbon monoxide leak inside the home. The people who live in the home complained of flu-like symptoms. It turns out, their furnace was broken.

"We had a furnace that had recently been replaced, but it wasn't a new furnace, it was simply a replaced furnace that same day and they found a cracked heat exchanger within that furnace so that was the source of the problem," said Milwaukee Fire Department Deputy Chief Terry Lintonen.

Six adults and five children were evacuated from the home. Eddie Hall's surveillance cameras caught the action.

They walked next door to the 27th Street fish and chicken restaurant.

"They said that they were dizzy and lightheaded and just didn't feel right," said Amanda Tilidetzke, manager of restaurant.

Tilidetzke let them inside.

"It's the right thing to do. Somebody's in trouble. We like to help our neighborhood," said Tilidetzke.

The Milwaukee Fire Department urges everyone to use this story as a lesson. Get a working CO detector!

"Absolutely critical and you can see in this situation, it took until they got sick before they called. If there was a working CO detector in their home, it would have sounded much sooner -- probably as soon as they turned that furnace on that was replaced -- so probably could have prevented a few people from being sick here and thankfully it wasn't worse than it was," said Lintonen.

The first floor of the home had 90 parts-per-million of carbon monoxide and the second floor had 22 parts-per-million. Lintonen says 25 parts-per-million is when it can become a critical situation.

The residents were treated at the hospital.

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