Baltimore County fire officials blamed the deaths of three people found Monday afternoon on a cabin cruiser in a Bowleys Quarters marina on carbon monoxide poisoning.
The victims were two women and one man, whom fire spokeswoman Elise Armacost suspected were local residents but could not identify until family members had been notified. Authorities responded to a report from a concerned relative of one victim who went to Parkside Marina at about 1 p.m. and discovered three unconscious bodies on the floor of the boat?s cabin.
Gas meters showed levels of the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas at 30 parts per million ? the point when the fire department begins to evacuate buildings ? but could have been higher before crews arrived, Armacost said.
“It?s one of the most frightening and dangerous poisonous gases out there because you literally don?t know it?s making you sick or killing you until, often, it?s too late,” Armacost said.
The bodies were sent to the state?s medical examiner in Baltimore to determine an official cause and time of death. Armacost said the boat?s hatches were tightly sealed, limiting ventilation, and the boat was not equipped with a carbon monoxide detector.
Carbon monoxide is a common byproduct of the incomplete combustion of fuel and could have come from the boat?s generator, Armacost said. The gas displaces oxygen in the bloodstream and produces symptoms that don?t appear life-threatening, such as headaches, dizziness, nausea and confusion.
“A tragedy like this is always a good time to remind people to have their appliances checked, especially when it?s really hot or really cold, when you tend to seal homes up,” Armacost said.
