Fire chief urges residents to comply with “Nicole’s Law”
Kelleher: think of the little girl the law’s named after

By Benjamin Witte

  Nicole‚Äôs Law is now officially on the books, meaning that in Somerville and elsewhere in Massachusetts, property owners are legally required to install carbon monoxide (CO) detectors in all residential dwellings. But with only partial enforcement to back it up, the head of the Somerville Fire Dept. doesn‚Äôt expect everyone here to comply with the law ‚Äì at least not in the short term.
As of March 31, owners planning to sell or transfer residential property must first obtain certification from the Somerville Fire Dept. showing that they’ve complied with the new CO detector law. Compliance in this case means installing detectors on every level of a residence except for basements or attics that do not have habitable living spaces. On levels with sleeping areas, the alarms must be placed within 10 feet of the bedroom doors.

   For now, however, pre-sale inspections are as far as enforcement goes. For owners not planning to sell or transfer their property, compliance ‚Äì while still required by law ‚Äì is based more or less on the honor system.
  ‚ÄúI don‚Äôt think people other than the people selling their homes are going to take this super seriously,‚Äù said Chief Kevin Kelleher. ‚ÄúEven the smoke detector law which went in during the 80s, we‚Äôre still going after people who have not even complied with that, in spite of the fact they‚Äôre known to prevent fire deaths.‚Äù
   Kelleher also admitted a few logistical problems associated with the law. For one, the devices are expensive ‚Äì $20 to $30 compared to under $10 for a smoke detector. And CO detector supply shortages have been a problem, said the chief.
    All that aside, according to Kelleher, Somerville residents owe it to themselves to comply with ‚ÄúNicole‚Äôs Law‚Äù as best they can, not just for the sake of following the rules or because it‚Äôs now a necessary step toward selling a home, but because exposure to too much CO can be a real danger.
   ‚ÄúThink of the little girl that the law‚Äôs named after,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúHer family had a nice house. They had a nice modern heating system. They felt that they were safe in their home, and an event took them. We‚Äôre trying to learn from that event. That event, that little girl‚Äôs death, should be the thing that drives us to say it could happen here.‚Äù
    That ‚Äúlittle girl‚Äù is Nicole Garafolo, who died on Jan. 28, 2005, four days after snow-blocked vents caused her Plymouth home to fill with lethal levels of CO. She was just seven years old. ‚ÄúNicole‚Äôs Law,‚Äù designed to prevent such a tragedy from reoccurring, was signed by Gov. Willard Mitt Romney 11 months later.
    CO is often referred to as the ‚Äúsilent killer.‚Äù Released from any type of fossil fuel burning device ‚Äìstoves, oil heaters, car engines, woodstoves, etc. ‚Äì the potentially lethal gas is all the more dangerous because it has no smell, taste or odor. People who are overexposed to CO tend to experience flu-like symptoms; severe headaches, dizziness, nausea, and even fainting. In the worst-case scenario, a person can fall into a coma and eventually die.
    To Kelleher‚Äôs knowledge, no one in Somerville has been killed from CO exposure, though he does remember one incident from a couple of years ago, when his department was contacted about a poising case that had originally gone unreported. A family of four, according to the chief, was checked into one of the major Boston-area hospitals after complaining of severe flu-like symptoms. After identifying the problem as CO poisoning, doctors communicated with the Somerville Fire Dept., which then made an inspection of the family‚Äôs home.
   ‚ÄúWe found a defective heating system,‚Äù said Kelleher. ‚ÄúHow high their levels were I‚Äôm not sure, but had they continued at the way they were going and possibly stayed in for a longer period of time, they may have become fatalities.‚Äù