Mortality

Kind of sad, really. Right down the street from where I live, on the 17th, a 22-year old LSU student died in an apartment of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. He was found by EMS personnel that afternoon, along with a 22-year old female, who was unconscious, but survived. They were in an unventilated apartment with an old space heater, the kind that I have in my apartment. It wasn't mentioned whether or not he had a CO detector, but his parents handed out CO detectors to students in the neighbourhood yesterday. There are two funeral wreaths out in front of the place. I had passed them every day, without noticing (in my defense, I spend more time watching traffic so I don't get splattered than looking at scenery).

The creepy thing is that I was going to rent the same apartment before I rented the one I am living in now. It makes you think. Of course, I have the same kind of old heater that is in most of these buildings, but I do have a CO detector (even if I don't know if it works or not). And, another thing: I don't trust the detector any more than I do the heater: I just don't use the heater at night, when I go to bed. It's on now, but I will turn it off before I go to sleep, because I am really counting on waking up tomorrow. Of course, so was he, and, when you're 22, you are incapable of dying.

I suppose he grew up in a nice suburban home, with central heat, not like I did, with ancient gas furnaces that had to be cleaned and maintained and properly vented. So, no-one probably ever warned him about the dangers of an open gas furnace, which is a pity.

I am sure that there will be repercussions, as well. I rent from the same landlord who owns that building, and, when I moved in, I was given a checklist which covered the CO detector, the fire extinguisher and the smoke detector (which goes off whenever I light the furnace or cook anything, so I take the battery out of it unless I am going to bed). There is a good chance that there was a CO detector at the apartment, but I don't know, and I don't know if it worked or not, which really doesn't change things because the boy's parents have just lost heir son, and they are probably pissed of, just at everything in general, and hurt, and there is bound to be an investigation, and maybe a lawsuit over this, even if it is just simply a case of accidental death.

At any rate, the CO detector here (which may or may not work) is plugged in, I am turning off the heat before I go to bed, and I have set the cats on firewatch, with orders to wake me if anything happens. That's about all I can do: that and hope I wake up in the morning, because I am planning to wash clothes and hang out with friends tomorrow, since I have Sunday off, the first one in six weeks, and I would rather spend it alive than dead.