we had a carbon monoxide leak early this morning

Early this morning we were awakened by our CO alarm.

AJ woke up at 4am to use the bathroom. DH heard him and got up to check on him and assist him in the bathroom. When DH got AJ back in bed he returned to our bed. Five minutes later our co alarm started going off. He woke me up and told me to get out of the house. He then called headquarters and they sent a platoon of rescue workers including the fire department and the fire chief himself.

As you can imagine being woken up at 4am and being told to get out of the house now is a confusing and scary experience. I jumped up threw on a pair of jeans and an old navy fleece and ran to AJ's room to get him dressed. This is one of the very few times he didn't fuss with me and I'm very thankful for it. We darted downstairs, threw on coats and were two steps out the door when I remembered Obi. I told AJ to sit on the front steps and bless his soul he did it and didn't move. I ran back in to get Obi, his leash, and his muzzle. I put Obi in my car and AJ went in DH's car.

We were outside for over an hour!! They said when they went in the house they smelled the co immediately and put their masks on. We all thought co didn't have a smell. Apparently at certain levels you can smell something different, even if you can't identify it as co.

They opened windows and doors to air out the house. They said our laundry room (where our furnace is) had the highest levels. They shut down the furnace and said we had to call the gas company. Once the co2 levels were back to non dangerous level they let us go back inside.

The gas guy arrived very quickly, about 30-40 mins after we called. The funny thing is he said he couldn't find where the co2 leak was and it really bothered him. He asked us questions and went around the house checking other areas. He left feeling uneasy because he couldn't give us an answer about what happened. He gave us a recommendations to a few good digital co detectors so we can keep an eye on the level numbers.

Needless to say since DH had to work today I was terrified to go back to sleep when AJ drifted off. I did however get over that fear and went back to my sweet dreams. DH called later in the morning and was scared because I didn't answer the house phone. He was going to send a squad car to our house if I didn't answer my cell phone.

We are happy as heck that we don't have to replace the furnace yet, but still worried because we don't know what caused the increase in co levels.

We are all save and feeling well though, and I that's what's important.

Taria