Suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in a home with makeshift heating killed two people just north of the Twin Cities and sent a third person to the hospital, officials said Monday.
A caller to 911 from the home in Princeton Township shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday sent deputies to the residence in the 1600 block of 110th Avenue, where a 27-year-old man was found dead in an upstairs bedroom along with a dog that “was in and out of consciousness,” read a statement from the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies soon found a female who was dead as was a cat with her. The caller was taken by emergency responders to a nearby hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning, the statement continued.
Her condition was not available as of late Monday morning. Nor did officials have any word on the fate of the dog.
The man who died was identified as Marcos Larson. The identities of the other people in the home have yet to be released.
“It appears at this stage of the investigation, the occupants of this house were using a gas-powered generator to power some space heaters in addition to propane heaters to heat the house,” the statement disclosed. “There was no power or running water in the house at the time of this incident.”
“It is never safe to run combustion engines inside of an enclosed space,” Sheriff Kyle Burton said. “Make sure your home is always equipped with working carbon monoxide alarms to alert you to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.”
