Neighbors react after deadly gas leak from pool heater kills two

Two men died at a Fort Myers Beach home on Saturday after a report from Teco Gas confirmed a disconnected pool pump caused gas to leak into the house.

READ MORE: 2 found dead at Fort Myers Beach home after reported gas leak

“I thought it definitely had to be a crime. And no, I’ve never heard of a gas leak. The only thing I’ve ever heard with gas leaks is that it starts a fire but not kills people,” said neighbor Maria Proulx.

The smell of gas and a call from a family worried about their loved one sent one neighbor inside the home on Saturday.

“I walked in the house, my neighbor called from up north and said, ‘hey, can you go check on my husband, or, you know, my husband and his friend?’ They hadn’t talked to him all day.” said the neighbor during the 911 call. “So I just walked in the house, and I was screaming for him, and when I went to the bed, he’s not moving.”

In that 911 call, you can hear the neighbor recall when he found Jack Elliot Faler lying in bed without a pulse.

“There might be two people in the house. They keep; they’re calling me to tell me there’s two people in the house,” said the neighbor.

Upstairs – Michael John Dewitt was found in the shower.

TECO said the cause of the gas leak was a disconnected pool pump exhaust that led up to the second-story outdoor pool.

“You know, you don’t think the worst, but then when you hear the worst, it kind of just gut punches you a little bit,” said tourist Thomas Sullivan.

It is a scene that’s left one neighbor wanting answers.

“They kept going around the building again and again and again, like, how could they not find the gas tank?,” said Proulx. “I just don’t understand why the alarms wouldn’t go off for a gas leak.”

Smoke detectors will detect co2 but it will not detect natural gas.

Lcso says all units that responded here Saturday confirmed that this was a natural gas leak.