Fumes in Point Boro House Send Two Teens to Hospital

Two teenagers were hospitalized and their Point Borough home deemed off limits after generators running in the basement filled the house with carbon monoxide fumes, police said.

Apparently, the teenagers, who were treated at Meridian's Urgent Care Center on Route 88, are OK, according to

However, because hospitals are prohibited by law from releasing any information about patients, their specific conditions were not available on Monday.

Cheryl Hack, the teens' mother, is under investigation by the state Division of Youth and Family Services, said Police Captain Richard Larsen in an interview at the on Monday afternoon.

He said Hack had generators running for about a week because, for reasons not known by police at this time, there was no electrical power or natural gas in the home.

A Point Borough construction official deemed the house uninhabitable until the electric and gas are restored, Larsen said, adding that he does not know where the mother and teenagers are living at this time.

Andy Welsh, captain of the Point Boro First Aid Squad, said that when the squad arrived at the home on Bradford Drive on Friday night, the teenagers were feeling ill from the fumes.

Squad members checked their vital signs and treated them for inhalation of carbon monoxide by administering high-flow oxygen through masks.

The squad transported the teens to Ocean Care Center, a Meridian hospital on Route 88, just off Route 35, in Point Borough.

Police were alerted to the scene when a neighbor called at 5:56 p.m. Friday, reporting that a gas generator was running in the basement, Larsen said.

"She was concerned about the kids living there," he said, adding that the children are 14 and 16 years old.

There was no one home when police went to the house, so they returned later that night at 11:19 p.m. when the teens were home, but no parents were home, Larsen said. That's when police also dispatched the fire department and first aid squads.

Borough Fire Chief Daniel Mulligan said the volunteer fire department was at the house for several hours. The department ventilated the home and installed fans to blow the carbon monoxide out of the house.

Mulligan said the department's carbon monoxide detector showed 1,000 parts per million of carbon monoxide, a level wildly over 35 parts per million, which is the level "where we start getting concerned."

Mulligan indicated the incident should serve as a warning to anyone thinking about hooking up generators inside their home, something that should never be done.

He said anyone hooking up generators outside their home should be careful about doing it safety and should have carbon monoxide detectors.