Blizzard turns deadly as car fumes overcome two seeking warmth
Credit: Michael Naughton/METRO
A teen and an adult man were killed over the weekend as the blizzard that blanketed the region in white this weekend turned deadly.
Both of the victims were inside cars seeking warmth when they succumbed to the deadly fumes because the exhaust pipes on both vehicles were not cleared.
The first incident occurred in Roxbury just before noon Saturday when responding officers found a 14-year-old boy in cardiac arrest. The teen was taken to Boston Medical Center where he later died.
The second incident occurred at about four hours later when emergency crews found a man in his early 20s dead inside a car. The fire department said the man had been sitting in a running parked car since 11 a.m. and had to break a window open to get to him.
Also on Saturday evening officers responded to East Boston and rescued two children, ages 5 and 8, from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning while inside a car. Those children are expected to survive, police said.
The spike in carbon monoxide poisonings due to snow-blocked pipes and vents prompted officials to warn residents.
“I cannot stress enough that parents and caretakers of children, and all Boston residents, do not take the dangers of this storm’s aftermath lightly,” Mayor Thomas Menino said in a statement.
He urged people to remove snow around all external vents, never grill inside a home for heat, never use a generator indoors and do not run a car in the garage.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
