KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the winter with our furnaces running, the danger of carbon monoxide is never far from us.
A Northland woman didn’t realize she was breathing in the deadly poison each night, and now she is sharing her story to warn others.
“Every time it gets cold, I turn it on,” said Beverlee Roper of her 20-year-old natural gas stove in her basement.
It’s the place where Roper and her dog, Taggart, like to snuggle up to watch TV each night. But little did she know, the stove was poisoning them.
“I had it on and I just noticed the smell of gasoline and something in the air just was not right,” she recalled.
Roper, a lawyer and Platte County Commissioner, followed her gut and called the gas company. A technician sent to inspect her home then delivered the shocking news.
“He said, ‘Ma’am, you could be dead, and you might should be dead,’” she said.
The technician told her the faulty furnace was leaking carbon monoxide at toxic levels throughout every room in her home – exposing her and her dog to an odorless, colorless gas that kills more than 400 Americans each year.
“Of course when I smelled the Mercaptan, I thought about an explosion,” Roper said. “It never occurred to me that I was being poisoned with carbon monoxide, never. I have a law degree. I am not a stupid person. That never occurred to me.”
Roper plans to get her furnace fixed and install a carbon monoxide detector in her house. But she said her experience proves this can happen to anyone, and she hopes her close call serves as a warning to others.
“This is a very serious situation,” she said. “People definitely need to have their furnaces and their gas appliances inspected, as I will from now on.”
If you’re over the age of 60, the Platte County Senior Fund will come out and inspect your furnace every two years for free. For more information, call 816-270-2800.
