Carbon monoxide leak sends 3 Lehigh Acres residents to hospital

A carbon monoxide leak has sent three people from Lehigh Acres to the hospital. The house located on Ground Dove Circle filled up with the odorless gas Tuesday night.

Lehigh Fire Control and Rescue said they vented the home out with fans.

The family was lucky, and the three people were taken to the hospital just as a precaution after a car was left running inside the garage. Lehigh Fire Control and Rescue called the incident accidental.

Investigators said it looked like a mechanical issue, and it was not intentional.

While this family seems to be OK, recently a Naples man who was out of state was not so fortunate.

Twenty-three-year-old Marine Ivan Garcia was found last Sunday morning in a parked car outside a gas station in North Carolina with two other fellow marines. All three died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

A leak someone is unaware of can be quite dangerous, so if you suspect you have a leak, or your check engine light is on, get your car checked out right away.

WINK spoke to car mechanic Ryan Krape who said this is a strange case because it was a pretty wide-open area.

“It depends on the leak,” Krape said. “Some leaks are small, and they just sound like a ticking noise when you first start the car. Many people don’t even realize that they’re an exhaust leak. That’s something you do want to get investigated right away because it can be a leak, and any time that you may have some kind of leak or something that’s related to a leak. I wouldn’t recommend anything but leaving the windows ventilated and cracked even. If you’re running the air on recirculate you want to get any of that excess out of there.”

While you can smell an exhaust leak, carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless. It’s important to have a carbon monoxide detector inside your home.