Cabramatta family poisoned during sleep, coal heater suspected

The father woke up feeling dizzy and vomiting, symptoms his wife and three children presented with too. A coal burner is believed to be the culprit.

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A Cabramatta family was rushed to hospital last night after a makeshift charcoal heater is believed to have caused carbon monoxide poisoning.

The family of five lit a charcoal burner to warm up their Longfield St apartment before going to sleep last night. When the father woke up just before 2am, he was dizzy and vomiting.

“It is extremely lucky that one of the family members was disturbed and recognised things weren’t right,” Michael Morris said, a chief superintendent of Fire & Rescue NSW. “Had (the father) ignored his original instinct, we could’ve ended up with a tragic outcome.”

A relative called emergency services for the family. Four ambulances, three fire trucks and officers from Fairfield Police were dispatched.

Jisi Navarathinam mourns his brother, Ajanthan Navarathinam, who brought heat beads into the house after a barbecue in 2015, and consequently died in his sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. Picture: Justin Sanson

The father (20), mother (19) and their three children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at the scene, before the ambulances transported them to Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition.

“There was a suspicious smell in the room,” Supt Morris said. “The (firefighting) crews were in breathing apparatus to take samples.”

Tests are being undertaken to confirm if the charcoal burner was the cause. Similar cases have proven fatal in recent years.

In 2015, a 29-year-old man from Greystanes fell asleep while a few pieces of charcoal burned in a frying pan placed in his bedroom. The man was found dead by his brother the next day.

A young girl is treated by paramedics on August 31, 2014, after her and her family suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in their Liverpool home.

In 2014, a family of five from Liverpool used barbecue coal to heat their home before going to sleep. An 8-year-old girl, who woke up after feeling unwell and needed to vomit, could not wake her parents up; she had to call a family friend for help. The family suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, but they survived.

Fire and Rescue NSW is warning families against the use of coal indoors.

“Heat beads must be used outside in a well ventilated environment, they must never be used to heat a home overnight,” Supt Morris said.

“When people use heat beads inside, it displaces the oxygen and increases the carbon monoxide. That can lead to people becoming disoriented and unconscious.

“Carbon Monoxide poisoning is very difficult to reverse … even when you get out into fresh air, it takes quite a while for it to get out of the body.”

As the winter cold settles, families are being told to primarily use blankets. Supt Morris said heaters can be used, but recommends strict guidelines.

“Keep everything in the house a metre from the heater, and preferably not overnight,” he said.