The Judiciary Police (PJ) were notified by the Fire Services Bureau (CB), Public Security Police (PSP), and public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre separately at 1:44 p.m. last Saturday that three locals, comprising a 4-year-old boy, 31-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman, died of carbon-monoxide poisoning at a flat on Rua de S. Domingos, PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said in a statement that day.
According to the statement, the two male victims are surnamed Wong and Ng, while the female victim, surnamed Chan, is Wong’s mother.
The statement quoted the doctor who carried out emergency treatment on the trio as saying that the three victims were not breathing and had no signs of a heartbeat upon arrival at the hospital and were soon pronounced dead. As a “quite high level of carbon monoxide” was detected in their blood, the statement added, it was believed that the deaths were caused by carbon-monoxide poisoning.
The statement also quoted their part-time domestic helper who found the three victims unconscious in the flat as saying that she went to work at the flat as usual at about 12:30 p.m. last Saturday. When she opened the door, the statement noted, she saw Chan lying on the bathroom floor, while Wong and Ng, who was Chan’s friend, were lying on the floor and the sofa of the living room respectively. The helper then informed Chan’s mother about the incident, which at the same time was reported to the police by the neighbours.
A preliminary examination of the bodies did not show any suspected criminal injuries, the statement noted, which added that neither signs of a fight nor burglary were found at the scene.
After an investigation at the scene, firefighters believed that the flat’s water heater installed in the kitchen leaked carbon monoxide and caused the incident, according to the statement.
A statement by the Fire Services Bureau that day said that carbon monoxide readings of 28 parts-per-million (PPM) in the bathroom and 34 PPM in the kitchen, and 622 PPM and 150 PPM in the flat’s two bedrooms respectively were detected.
Girl, 13, injured after breathing carbon monoxide
Meanwhile, the Fire Services Bureau said in a statement yesterday that a 13-year-old girl, who breathed in carbon monoxide, was admitted to the public hospital last night after suffering dizziness and sustaining a laceration on the bridge of her nose after falling in the bathroom of her home in Block 4 of the La Cite residential estate (寰宇天下) on Rua Central da Areia Preta (黑沙環中街).
The statement noted that a carbon monoxide reading of about 341 PPM was recorded in the bathroom where a water heater was installed.
The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) company believed that the gas leak was caused by the improper installation of the water heater in the bathroom.
Image courtesy of Seattle Fire Department
