OCALA - It's called a silent killer and as deadly as Carbon Monoxide is, five people in a home in Ocala managed to survive high levels of it last night. This is the most common cause of accidental poisoning in the country.
 

It’s an accident that can happen to anyone. The family members tells me they were using a gas generator in the back porch. They turned it off and brought it in the house which they thought would be “okay,” but forgot to close a plug and that’s how the fumes leaked inside.

Meshell Madigan tells me, “I don’t know, I thought I was going to die.” This colorless, odorless, tasteless deadly gas claims more than 500 lives in the country every year. Ocala Fire Rescue answered to a 911 call Friday at 1 a.m. from Madigan and her fiancée. “I was throwing up everywhere, I had a very bad migraine, I felt like I was going to die. I couldn’t focus. I was scared for them on top of myself,” she adds.

The five people required emergency medical care for Carbon Monoxide poisoning and were transported to Munroe Regional Hospital. Assistant Chief for the Ocala Fire Rescue, Brian Stoothoff says symptoms for Carbon monoxide poisoning are similar to those of the flu. “Weakness, fatigue, headache are very common and we suggest if you have those symptoms that you go outdoors and call 911, especially if more than one family member has those symptoms,” he says. Stoothoff advises people to be even more careful this winter as these accidents are more common in the cold weather. “Carbon Monoxide is produced from malfunctioning gas appliances, it can also be produced from motor vehicle emissions and fire places. So we always suggest that you have a carbon monoxide detector if you have those items,” Stoothoff notes.

Despite the high levels of Carbon Monoxide inside of this home, she feels blessed to have made it out alive. “I thank god, if it weren’t for him, I would have died. And this made my faith in him a lot stronger than it was before,“ Madigan affirms.

Everyone is back home recovering but it was a scare madigan says no one would want to go through. Ocala Fire Rescue advises people never to run a generator inside of a house or in a closed atmosphere.