West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) is today (6 Feb 2024) issuing an urgent appeal to its communities following a number of callouts where extremely high carbon monoxide levels have been detected – posing a risk to residents and their neighbours.
So far in 2024, WMFS has attended six incidents at which very high levels of carbon monoxide were detected. It appears to have come from ‘wood charcoal’ fuels being burned indoors to fuel incense, shisha pipes or to light other fuels.
These have set off carbon monoxide alarms or caused illness, with levels of 600 parts per million (ppm) detected – high enough to be fatal.
WMFS has contacted the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group to highlight its findings and which products appear to be the cause of the incidents.