This Christian Life

Thank God for Heat

Five days ago we began smelling something unusual in our basement and back room. We couldn’t put a finger on it and the smell wasn’t terribly intense so we decided to watch it for a while.

It didn’t go away and seemed to get a little more intense as the days went on. We called the gas company on the advice of a co-worker and they didn’t find anything serious.

But the smell just didn’t go away. We called the gas company again and had them check for carbon monoxide (which they didn’t do the first time). This time, they discovered that exhaust was pouring backwards down our chimney into the house thereby making the carbon monoxide levels upwards of 200 parts per million. (See this chart for more info.) The gas guy ran out of the house and started freaking out.

Come to find out, if we had a forced air furnace (vs. the radiator, hot water system we have), we probably would have had serious carbon monoxide poisoning and may not even have survived. Thank God for that!

It’s being fixed as we speak.