Four in family killed by carbon monoxide

SEATTLE – The bodies were scattered through the suburban home. The generator was in the closed attached garage.

For investigators, the scene was all too familiar in the wake of a windstorm that left more than 1 million people without power in Washington state.

“This kind of death is entirely preventable,” King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said. “You just cannot take generators and that type of equipment inside a home.”

Four members of a family – the youngest a 14-year-old boy – were dead, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning, by the time deputies arrived Monday at their home in Burien, a south Seattle suburb, to check on them. The fifth, a grown son identified by a friend as Cahn Tran, was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Monday night.

The fatalities raised the death toll to 12 from last week’s windstorm, the state’s worst in more than a decade.

Carbon monoxide – an odorless, colorless and highly toxic gas produced when gasoline or charcoal is burned – also was responsible for killing two men over the weekend. One had been using a portable generator in his living room in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland; the other was using a charcoal grill to heat his bedroom in Renton, a suburb south of Seattle.

Falling trees, rushing water, burning candles and downed power lines caused the other deaths.

Friends identified the parents of the Vietnamese family as Khanh Tran, a landscaper, and his wife, Thuy Tran.

About 20 neighbors and relatives gathered near the home on a busy residential street after hearing the news.

Urquhart said relatives last spoke with the family on Saturday and called deputies Monday afternoon, asking that they check the house.

Deputies broke into the home and found the bodies.

“One person had gone downstairs, perhaps to turn the generator off, and he collapsed,” Urquhart said.

Health officials estimate that hundreds of people in Washington have suffered some degree of carbon monoxide poisoning since the storm. High winds that knocked out power – and heat – to more than 1 million homes and businesses late Thursday and early Friday were followed by temperatures in the 20s and 30s. Many residents turned to grills or portable generators to heat their homes despite emergency workers’ warnings about the danger.

About 200,000 utility customers remained without electricity late Monday in Western Washington, and officials said it could be days before power is restored to all of them. Some 5,000 King County residents still were without telephone service.

State Health Secretary Mary Selecky urged residents to check on friends, relatives and neighbors and to warn them not to use grills or generators indoors – even with windows open.

“Many people are still without power or phones, so it is very difficult to reach them with this important message. This is why we need everyone’s help,” Selecky said.

Four people died shortly after the storm hit on Thursday night, packing heavy rains, lightning and winds that gusted to about 70 mph in the Seattle area. One woman was trapped by suddenly rising water in the basement of her house in Seattle. Three people were killed by falling trees.

A 48-year-old man died Saturday in a fire started by a candle burning in his home in Spanaway in Pierce County. And on Sunday, a man and his dog were killed when they stepped on a power line while out for a walk in Gig Harbor.

By several measures, the devastation exceeded that of the windstorm on Jan. 20, 1993, which left five people dead, at least 79 homes destroyed and about $130 million in damage.

Damage caused by last week’s storm has yet to be assessed, but the death toll this time is higher and the impact on the power grid appears to be more severe. Seattle City Light was reconnecting 175,000 buildings compared with 110,000 in the 1993 storm.