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Steubenville Man Lucky to be Alive After Carbon Monoxide Leak

Steubenville resident Calvin Wicker’s friends had been urging him to get a carbon monoxide monitor for several years.

But he always put it off, until he heard the news of the carbon monoxide deaths of James and Carolyn Swearingen in their Lincoln Avenue home earlier this month.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s office ruled the Swearingens’ deaths a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“I went out to Lowe’s and bought a carbon monoxide detector I put on the wall by the basement steps and a combination carbon monoxide and smoke detector upstairs. One day after I installed the monitor it went off, so I called the city fire department and they came right over,” Wicker said.

“We walked into the house with our detectors and they immediately started going off. I told Mr. Wicker he was the luckiest man alive because the carbon monoxide was slowly building up in his basement and poisoning him,” Steubenville fire Capt. Chris Blackburn said. “He was lucky he had the (presence) of mind to go buy a monitor and to put one up by his kitchen. And when it went off he called us immediately. A little paranoia saved his life. Unfortunately sometimes it takes a tragedy to prevent a tragedy. If he didn’t install that monitor, and hadn’t reacted properly when it went off, he would have probably died.”

Blackburn said when firefighters went into the basement to check out Wicker’s hot water heat and boiler, they found the exhaust pipe from the hot water heater was rusted away and wasn’t connected to the chimney.

“It was just a matter of time,” Blackburn said. “I was on the investigation team at the Swearingen home and it was sad because I played softball with Chico. They probably both thought they had the flu because carbon monoxide poisoning has similar symptoms.”

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