Parents and players of a minor hockey team from Weyburn are thankful to be back home safely, after experiencing a carbon monoxide leak at their hotel in Williston, N.D.
Parents and players of a minor hockey team from Weyburn are thankful to be back home safely, after experiencing a carbon monoxide leak at their hotel in Williston, N.D., over the weekend, but they are questioning why the hotel had no carbon monoxide detectors.
The AM1190 atom team was in Williston for a tournament, and the families stayed at the Airport International Inn; they were finished playing on Saturday, and decided to stay over to Sunday to allow the kids and parents to relax and have some fun at the hotel, said one of the parents, Stacy Pederson.
"We were awakened at 5:30 in the morning (Sunday) as they were evacuating the hotel. Half of the hockey team's kids and parents ended up in the hospital on oxygen," she said.
One of those parents, Todd Neuberger, noted his son Hudson had to be on oxygen for an hour as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, and described the scene as "unorganized chaos" where the staff just continued working as if nothing had happened.
Neuberger said a total of 12 Weyburn children and parents had to be treated with oxygen as a result of the leak, with one family needing treatment for about four hours before being released.
When his son was tested, he was told if there were levels over 5 parts per million then he would need some oxygen; some people tested as high as 20 ppm in their bloodstream.
As of Monday, everyone on the team had returned home and were all right as a result of the treatment.
The incident apparently began as a man collapsed while having a shower, but he managed to phone a friend for help. He didn't know what his room number was, so they had to search for him, and when emergency personnel came they determined there was carbon monoxide in the air, and the personnel went door to door to awaken everyone to evacuate the hotel.
Neuberger noted that one of the emergency personnel came in with a detector, and it started beeping 40 feet inside the front door; this was when they decided to evacuate everyone from the hotel.
Once outside, those who needed treatment were taken to hospital, while the rest waited in their cars. As Pederson noted, "we were all still in our pajamas."
Eventually, a McDonalds opened their play area so the children could have somewhere to play until the families could get back inside to get their belongings and check out. Pederson said it was a good four hours before they were able to get back to get their stuff.
The hotel indicated they would pick up the hospital bills for anyone who needed treatment, and as a result of the incident they are also forgiving the bill for staying Saturday night - but as Pederson indicated, "They reimbursed us for the one night, but we had to ask for it."
She added the team made sure everyone was out safely, and that the families waited until those who needed treatment were done before leaving.
"The camaraderie on our team is fantastic; everybody is there for each other," she said, adding they all were feeling thankful there weren't worse consequences.
"It could've been so much worse. We're very fortunate everybody for the most part got out okay. It was a pretty serious thing that happened," said Pederson.
Besides the total lack of carbon monoxide detectors, Neuberger said he found it odd that no hotel staff were by any of the doors after everyone was evacuated, and the staff just kept on working.
Pederson noted some people were disoriented and nauseous as a result of the carbon monoxide leak, and commented, "The hotel didn't have any management on site to talk to the guests. If it wasn't for the emergency responders, we wouldn't have been wakened up."
She added that three other families besides them from the team had no health issues as a result of the leak.
