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Landlord sued over carbon monoxide
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman who said she and her three minor children were sleepy and suffered headaches due to carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by a defective furnace has sued her former landlord.
Shnell Echols, of East Boston Avenue, sued Mark King of Lowellville and the M.A.C.K. Property Group he owns concerning the April 27, 2013, incident at M.A.C.K.’s property at 337 E. Lucius Ave., which Echols rented.
When Echols was moving into the house in February 2013, the gas company inspected and red-tagged the faulty furnace and shut off its gas supply, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
A M.A.C.K. employee negligently tried to repair the furnace, removed the red tag and turned the gas back on, the suit said.
Youngstown police and firefighters arrived and found the occupants standing in the yard April 27, with the children, age 8, 13 and 15, about to be taken to Akron Children’s Hospital.
Even with the windows and both doors open, firefighters said they recorded 20 parts per million of carbon monoxide in the house 10 minutes after their arrival.
They shut off the furnace and told Echols to take the children to the hospital, call her landlord and keep the furnace off, according to the fire department report.
Echols told firefighters she noticed black soot on her walls and ceiling and in the furnace area.
“The furnace was very old, and the front coal chute was screwed shut with a metal plate. Signs of soot and fire were on the front door,” Fire Battalion Chief Ronald Russo reported.
“I’m not aware of any kind of carbon-monoxide problem at that house,” King said.
“The only issue that we had was there was a vacant house next door,” which burned, King recalled. “It caught my house on fire, so she had to move out of the house,” he said of Echols.
A licensed, bonded and insured furnace repairman responds to all furnace complaints concerning his properties, and King’s 24-hour answering service contacts the repairman directly regarding furnace complaints, King said.
After this incident, Echols and her children were homeless for eight months, according to the lawsuit, which seeks damages in excess of $25,000 and demands a jury trial.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, highly toxic gas produced by incomplete combustion.
Average levels in homes without gas stoves are between 0.5 and 5 parts per million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The civil lawsuit was filed on Echols’ behalf by Attys. Rhys B. Cartwright-Jones and James S. Gentile and is assigned to Judge John M. Durkin.