Carbon monoxide law is a lifesaver for one family

A Naperville landlord is crediting a new state law with saving the lives of a family in one of his dwellings.

As of Jan. 1, carbon monoxide detectors must be installed within 15 feet of every bedroom in nearly every Illinois home and apartment.

So, when he made his rounds to collect his tenants' rent on New Year's Day, Jim Freier, property manager for ERA Naper Realty, installed those devices in the apartments he manages.

As it turned out, one of the detectors he installed that day likely saved the lives of Maria Teresa Flores and her three children.

"The first night I had the carbon monoxide detector, it started beeping, and I was so scared," Flores said.

She got out of bed and called her friends, asking what to do, and they instructed her to immediately call both Freier and 911. She did just that, then, on the advice of the 911 operator, awoke her kids and, after opening every window, evacuated the apartment, standing pajama-clad in the cold morning air, waiting for help to arrive.

With an ambulance and the Naperville Fire Department en route, Freier called Kohler Heating and Air Conditioning, which arrived on the scene in 20 minutes and confirmed that the apartment's furnace was faulty. Apparently the furnace filter had not been changed and, since it was starving for air, the heat exchanger cracked. The cracked heat exchanger was leaking carbon monoxide.

It was silently killing the Flores family, said Freier.

Flores agreed.
"You don't see it, you don't smell it, but you really do feel it," she said.