Four people have been rushed to hospital after suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning in Adelaide on Friday morning.
Three adults fainted and another suffered a nosebleed after the incident at a unit in the suburb of Bedford Park at around 1.30am.
It is understood hot coals were brought into the property in an attempt to keep the occupants warm.
Emergency services were called to the group’s home after they realized they were all very unwell. (new)
The four friends were left upset by the incident.
Apsara Subedi described the situation as “very scary”, while her friend Sadikshya Aryal said she “never thought she would hurt us, not even for an hour or so”.
They suffered from headaches and took painkillers as they put the embers outside and went to sleep.
They didn’t know they were suffering from the effects of the toxic gas.
Metropolitan Fire Service Commander Wayne Trezise said the friends would not have been able to smell the gas.
“They would have been sleepy,” he said.
One of the housemates breathes oxygen through a mask after being accidentally poisoned. (new)
Subedi woke up in a daze around 1.30am, quickly realized something was wrong and called for help.
Neighbor Aleena Ata said she heard her calling for help.
“She was screaming ‘help me, help me’ and there were some people who ran out,” said Ata.
“I saw that she was being attended to.”
Subedi said she thought she was dying or had “something wrong” with her heart or brain.
Four people have been rushed to hospital after suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning in Adelaide. (9 News)
“But as soon as I saw them pass out I thought it might be the fire,” he said.
Authorities said the situation could have been much worse.
“It would have been minutes before we would have had four people who wouldn’t have woken up,” Trezise said.
Metropolitan Fire Service Commander Wayne Trezise said if the alarm had not been raised, the group could have died. (9 News)
This is one of several similar accidents this week.
A Hectorville father and son were treated in hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning on Tuesday, while a Sydney family made the same near-fatal mistake recently.
Fire crews have reminded South Australians how dangerous it can be to use hot coals indoors.
“We can’t stress enough that this is very unsafe,” Trezise said.
“We need to make sure that everyone in the community is not using any form of combustion in their homes.”