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Man found dead on Boat


ditchcrawler

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This one puts his age at 63.

So his age was even more "progressed", to use Nightwatch's pleasantly diplomatic expression, than people thought.

If this CO had vanished before the emergency serrvices carried out their inspection, this suggests that there was some ventilation on the boat - so why would there be a lethal build-up of the gas? Or could it have escaped when they opened the boat's doors?

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I'd noticed that our stove had recently been struggling and hadn't been 'drawing' properly, It's been a few months since I swept the chimney as it has been alight continuously in that time so I intended to let it burn out today and give it a good clean.

 

Last night at about 9pm the Co2 alarm nearest it went off and was showing 55 on the screen. I attempted to sweep the chimney and think I managed to clear it a bit and took some of the coal off and the fire revived a bit. I didn't want to douse it as I think?? I've read that even this can leave dangerous fumes emanating anyway, so the intention was to let it completely burn out as soon as possible, hopefully before we went to bed. We also opened most of the windows.

 

All seemed okay and then at 1am the bedroom alarm went off, showing a reading of 47. We opened the doors at each end of the boat for half an hour and then went to bed, trusting that the alarms would alert us if there were to be further problems.

 

Suffice to say that this morning we are still alive and the stove fire has expired. I wonder if we would have been if we hadn't been alerted by the alarms.

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I'd noticed that our stove had recently been struggling and hadn't been 'drawing' properly, It's been a few months since I swept the chimney as it has been alight continuously in that time so I intended to let it burn out today and give it a good clean.

 

Last night at about 9pm the Co2 alarm nearest it went off and was showing 55 on the screen. I attempted to sweep the chimney and think I managed to clear it a bit and took some of the coal off and the fire revived a bit. I didn't want to douse it as I think?? I've read that even this can leave dangerous fumes emanating anyway, so the intention was to let it completely burn out as soon as possible, hopefully before we went to bed. We also opened most of the windows.

 

All seemed okay and then at 1am the bedroom alarm went off, showing a reading of 47. We opened the doors at each end of the boat for half an hour and then went to bed, trusting that the alarms would alert us if there were to be further problems.

 

Suffice to say that this morning we are still alive and the stove fire has expired. I wonder if we would have been if we hadn't been alerted by the alarms.

 

Almost certainly yes, but with a headache.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning

 

 

MtB

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I'd noticed that our stove had recently been struggling and hadn't been 'drawing' properly, It's been a few months since I swept the chimney as it has been alight continuously in that time so I intended to let it burn out today and give it a good clean.

 

Last night at about 9pm the Co2 alarm nearest it went off and was showing 55 on the screen. I attempted to sweep the chimney and think I managed to clear it a bit and took some of the coal off and the fire revived a bit. I didn't want to douse it as I think?? I've read that even this can leave dangerous fumes emanating anyway, so the intention was to let it completely burn out as soon as possible, hopefully before we went to bed. We also opened most of the windows.

 

All seemed okay and then at 1am the bedroom alarm went off, showing a reading of 47. We opened the doors at each end of the boat for half an hour and then went to bed, trusting that the alarms would alert us if there were to be further problems.

 

Suffice to say that this morning we are still alive and the stove fire has expired. I wonder if we would have been if we hadn't been alerted by the alarms.

 

Did you get to the bottom of the problem?!

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As most of you are no doubt aware, simply sweeping the chimney occasionally isn't enough, it is also necessary to give the area around the throat and baffles etc. a good clean and the use a vacuum cleaner to remove the build up. A dirty but worthwhile job.

Edited by Chop!
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Almost certainly yes, but with a headache.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning

 

 

MtB

 

The good thing about most CO monitors/alarms is that they warn you well before CO levels become really dangerous - i.e. between 10 and 50 ppm. Many years ago I noticed that I often got a headache after driving home from work in traffic on the M27 - I decided to measure the CO levels in the car during the journey with the sort of crude monitor then available (it looked a bit like a fancy Litmus Paper and was used to monitor CO in pub kitchens) and it indicated a CO level that had exceeded 50 ppm - I imagine that many people are exposed to low levels of CO when driving on congested roads.

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The good thing about most CO monitors/alarms is that they warn you well before CO levels become really dangerous - i.e. between 10 and 50 ppm. Many years ago I noticed that I often got a headache after driving home from work in traffic on the M27 - I decided to measure the CO levels in the car during the journey with the sort of crude monitor then available (it looked a bit like a fancy Litmus Paper and was used to monitor CO in pub kitchens) and it indicated a CO level that had exceeded 50 ppm - I imagine that many people are exposed to low levels of CO when driving on congested roads.

 

Rather remarkably in my opinion you can still buy something similar....

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carbon-Monoxide-CO-Detector-Monitor/dp/B005K7RVRI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1389094013&sr=8-7&keywords=carbon+monoxide+detector

 

71g5R7WWk%2BL._SL1059_.jpg

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I'd noticed that our stove had recently been struggling and hadn't been 'drawing' properly, It's been a few months since I swept the chimney as it has been alight continuously in that time so I intended to let it burn out today and give it a good clean.

 

Last night at about 9pm the Co2 alarm nearest it went off and was showing 55 on the screen. I attempted to sweep the chimney and think I managed to clear it a bit and took some of the coal off and the fire revived a bit. I didn't want to douse it as I think?? I've read that even this can leave dangerous fumes emanating anyway, so the intention was to let it completely burn out as soon as possible, hopefully before we went to bed. We also opened most of the windows.

 

All seemed okay and then at 1am the bedroom alarm went off, showing a reading of 47. We opened the doors at each end of the boat for half an hour and then went to bed, trusting that the alarms would alert us if there were to be further problems.

 

Suffice to say that this morning we are still alive and the stove fire has expired. I wonder if we would have been if we hadn't been alerted by the alarms.

We had a similar problem with our Morso in spring last year. The fire wouldn't draw at all. Thought it strange.

 

Luckily, I investigated, as you do, and eventually found that one of the lugs holding the rear blanking plate had given up and the blanking plate was no longer blanking completely. I have ordered CO alarms in response to this thread but at the time didn't have an alarm.

 

So easy to get caught out.Money is an influence, sadly. If you don't have any, you don't equip your boat with safety gadgets as you ought to. Make them compulsory I say. Then you have to have them.

 

What is the view of the fire service regarding CO alarms? I know sometimes they offer smoke alarms for free.

 

Martyn. Edited to add that I fixed the blanking plate at that time.

Edited by Nightwatch
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Did you get to the bottom of the problem?!

 

Unfortunately not Bones. Today I've given the chimney, grate etc a thorough sweep, which cleared out a lot of soot but it still isn't drawing properly because when I light the kindling smoke seeps out of various places before the fire expires shortly afterwards.

 

One factor which could be very relevant is that I clouted the chimney when going under a bridge the other day. I was only going less than 2mph but it bent the chimney back. I've looked at the roof collar and it looks to be okay, i,e sealant round it is still intact.

I have also put a new chimney on because the other one was damaged.

 

To be honest the stove (a Petit Godin) is in need of a good service. We've had the boat a year and I don't know when it last had a decent service. I'll happy to have a go at anything but where a stove is concerned I'd rather not take any chances and what has happened to this poor bloke and his dog makes me even more wary.

 

For example, I tried to remove a backplate from the rear of the stove to get into the flue as it was blocked with soot but despite being careful the nut sheared. This flue (if that's what it is) has been blocked with soot since we had the boat but despite this the stove has up until now worked fine.

 

As I said, I don't want to take any chances and am unwilling to risk trying anything myself. I would be more comfortable having it investigated and the work done by a professional.

 

So can anybody recommend a reputable stove service engineer in the Midlands and preferably Kings Bromley/Lichfield area please?

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I thought this would be the case but the newspaper article specifically refers to it an accident.

 

It says the police are investigating the accident, not that the police are investigating to rule out foul play. I imaging this is just sloppy journalism and the HSE will take over once the police are satisfied in was a genuine accident.

 

MtB

 

Off topic, but police are required to attend any "unexpected death" which is when the deceased has not been receving tretement or seen their GP within an X time period. When my poor old mum died at 89, after having been catatonic with dementia for some years it was an unexpected death so 3 (THREE!) police men arrived at the nursing home to escort the funeral director removing her body. Puxzzled the hell out of us - were they expecting her to make a break for it?

 

So sad to hear of this death of a boater and his dog - walk and boat down past tramway very very often and so muct have known his boat.

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Another incident, this time on a fishing boat in Whitby harbour:

 

http://www.whitbygazette.co.uk/news/local/update-boat-deaths-1-6374292

 

According to the article, the two people involved may have lit the gas oven before they went to bed, to provide extra heat.

 

Now I know fishing boats aren't subject to the BSS, but they are certified under the MCGA codes of practise for small commercial vessels. As I don't do coding work, I'm not sure if these address ventilation in the same way that the BSS does (even if they did, it doesn't take into account misuse of appliances like this).

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Very sad reading about this incident on the Oxford canal. But makes us all think about our boats and our safety eh? We had a similar event with our stove couple of years ago... hubby tried to light the fire, and it kept going out.. we thought maybe the chimney wanted sweeping or a blockage somewhere, so on further investigation looking into the fire itself revealed a large hole and clear picture of the TILES BEHIND THE STOVE!!! The backplate was missing (it was lying under the stove). Panic stricken as what might have been the case if this had happened during the night whilst fast asleep, we duly ordered a replacement along with the bolts and lugs to fit asap... But it certainly is a wake up call. We have an alarm but think as Mike suggested in his post, might be good idea to purchase another make as they say 'belt and braces' wink.png

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Very sad reading about this incident on the Oxford canal. But makes us all think about our boats and our safety eh? We had a similar event with our stove couple of years ago... hubby tried to light the fire, and it kept going out.. we thought maybe the chimney wanted sweeping or a blockage somewhere, so on further investigation looking into the fire itself revealed a large hole and clear picture of the TILES BEHIND THE STOVE!!! The backplate was missing (it was lying under the stove). Panic stricken as what might have been the case if this had happened during the night whilst fast asleep, we duly ordered a replacement along with the bolts and lugs to fit asap... But it certainly is a wake up call. We have an alarm but think as Mike suggested in his post, might be good idea to purchase another make as they say 'belt and braces' wink.png

This has happened to a lot of people

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  • 4 weeks later...

Stoves that don't light easily could be suffering from a cold chimney, when the initial warm, rising, gases fall back down again and put the kindling out.

 

Such stoves often have a big bit at the bottom of the flue, just on top of the stovey bit.

 

I've found, with 100% success, that a tightly folded paraffin-soaked square of kitchen towel, lit, and placed in that box using tongs, will roar away and heat the chimney.

 

Lighting my kindling, whilst the above was going on, always resulted in a good light-up.

 

That's not to say that you shouldn't check for blockages often and install a CO detector in yer bed 'ole.

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