Late Sunday morning, a carbon monoxide (CO) leak at a student off-campus apartment building near Virginia Tech in Blacksburg sickened 19 female students. Five of the women remain in the hospital, with two of the women in critical condition. They were flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center for treatment.
Students Unresponsive When Found
The two most severely affected students, Kristin Julia of Waterford and Kirsten Halik of Vienna, Va., both 19, were unable to breathe on their own when a gas company employee found them. Three more women in the same apartment were unresponsive but able to breathe; they were flown to Duke University Medical Center.
Water Heater’s Faulty Valve
A resident of a building near the Collegiate Suites apartment building where the leak was located notified the Atmos Energy gas company that morning, suspecting a gas leak. The Atmos employee who responded realized the apparent problem — a CO leak from a faulty valve on a water heater in the building’s laundry room.
The unidentified gas company employee carried the five women who were unconscious to a landing, and others helped carry the women outside. The building was immediately evacuated. Paramedics and firefighters from the Blacksburg Fire Department arrived quickly, and the affected students were transported to Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg.
Lethal Level of CO
Three teams of firefighters checked the CO levels in all 12 apartments of the Collegiate Suites building, which is popular with female Virginia Tech students. Half an hour after the police and firefighters were first called about the leak at 11:18 a.m., the CO level in the apartment shared by the five women most severely affected was 500 parts per million parts of air, a potentially lethal dose. Blacksburg Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Wilson said that CO poisoning can occur at levels as low as 25 parts per million.
The leak and evacuation occurred less than an hour before a scheduled memorial at Virginia Tech for the 32 students and faculty killed in April 2007 by a student. The brother of Kristin Julia said Sunday night that his sister’s condition was “still 50/50.”