Alberta boy, 12, dies following carbon monoxide leak at apartment building

Flag or Alberta (Photo by Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

AIRDRIE, Alta. — A young boy who was taken to hospital in critical condition when an apartment building north of Calgary was evacuated due to hazardous carbon monoxide levels has died.

RCMP Insp. Kimberley Pasloske, commander of the Airdrie detachment, says the 12-year-old passed away shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Pasloske says two other members of his family were treated in hospital. One other resident of the building in Airdrie received treatment at a recreation centre where some residents went after emergency workers ordered the building cleared.

Pasloske says the child’s name will not be released.

EMS were called to the 136-unit, four-storey complex Sunday morning for a report of a child in medical distress, but they quickly realized there was a carbon monoxide danger.

Pasloske says the source of the carbon monoxide was isolated and the fire department ventilated the building, but residents of six of the units are not allowed to return yet while an investigation takes place.

“Our community of Airdrie is very close and this news hits us very hard,” Pasloske told reporters at a news conference Sunday evening.

“I urge you to support one another through this time.”

Pasloske said RCMP will work with the fire department and the coroner to determine what happened and why, as well as whether charges will be laid.

Garth Rabel, deputy chief of the Airdrie Fire Department, said investigators were still at the scene late Sunday.

“We have all the specific people required for the discipline that we’re dealing with — we’re dealing with gas-fired appliances,” Rabel said, noting he wasn’t ready to release the cause of the leak just yet.

“They haven’t qualified the exact cause,” he said, adding that he likely wouldn’t have that information until Monday.