An Augusta Family Survives Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Augusta, GA—Nickson Joseph, family was poisoned by carbon monoxide: “As you can see the walls they’re all filthy black, with carbon monoxide poison.”

Nickson Joseph and his family of 7 had no idea that for more than 2 weeks, their furnace was giving off the deadly gas. 

Joseph: “You feel dizzy, nauseated, hard for you to breathe. Because you congested in your chest for no apparent reason, whatsoever. Shortness of breath, you know, it’s like, it could have took us out slowly if we didn’t call the fire department.”

Reed Wakeley is a volunteer for Augusta’s American Red Cross. They put the Joseph’s in a hotel for 3 days until it was safe to go home.

Reed Wakeley, Volunteer, American Red Cross: “It made me feel real good being able to help them, but it made me worry about how many other people are out there who really need to be concerned about carbon monoxide.”

The Joseph’s didn’t have a carbon monoxide detector, if they did this may have been prevented. They say they’re thankful their lives were spared, but have a long road ahead of them.

Joseph: “Our clothes, our furniture, the smut, it just got all over it. We can go to the wash house and wash our clothes, but it won’t do no good because the smut then got into the clothes and it just messed up all of the clothes. Like we’ve got to start all over again.”

Joseph and his family say they’ll bounce back, but hope others use their story as a lesson learned.

Joseph: “We didn’t know anything about this, period. As far as we were concerned, we were illiterate to this until the fact that the fire department had to come and tell us because if we didn’t we would have still been living there. Wondering why were getting smoke and then one day would have never woke up. Fortunately for us, God spared our lives.”

The carbon monoxide build up was from two portable furnaces in the home that weren’t working right.

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