Four people were poisoned by carbon monoxide in the Brussels municipality of Evere on Sunday evening, according to the local fire brigade.
Two of the victims were unconscious when firefighters arrived, and carbon monoxide was also detected in a neighbouring house. The cause of the poisoning was improper venting of combustion gases from gas boilers.
A woman in Romania sounded the alarm as she hadn't heard from her husband in some time. She notified emergency services at around 20:20 on Sunday evening.
An ambulance and the mobile emergency unit from Brugmann Hospital were dispatched to a residential building on Rue Jean-Baptiste Desmeth in Evere.
"It was a building with four apartments spread across two floors," explained Walter Derieuw, spokesperson for the Brussels Fire Brigade. "As soon as emergency services entered the apartment, their CO detector went off. High levels of carbon monoxide were measured."
"A mother and child, who lived on the second floor on the right, evacuated the premises themselves. The doors of the two flats on the left were broken open and, in each one, the occupant was found unconscious and evacuated by us," Derieuw added.
The four victims were evacuated to the military hospital for oxygen therapy.
The cause of the poisoning was due to poor evacuation of combustion gases from the gas boilers. The gases from the flats on the left ended up in a technical room adjacent to the house next door, with no opening to the outside. They spread throughout the house.
The CO detector in the neighbouring house had gone off the previous day. A low level of carbon monoxide was also measured there on Sunday evening and the occupants were examined by a doctor. No hospitalisation was necessary.
Sibelga closed and sealed the four gas meters in the flat block.
