Chicago Fire Chief Bob Anthony oversees Chicago’s fleet of 240 gas monitors and breathing apparatus. He says that when an ambulance paramedic arrives on the scene of a suspected gas leak, atmospheric readings are taken by two instruments whenever possible.
He credits this “redundant safety” procedure to his department’s decisive action last fall to evacuate a Chicago school and send 70 children and seven adults to a hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning. It was the department’s largest CO school rescue on record. Everyone returned safely to their homes within a day.