Crews arrived to the Guardian Towers building and found the building’s CO monitor was in alarm.
According to the Calgary Fire Department there was a dangerous level of carbon monoxide in the building after vents became blocked, causing exhaust from the roof to back up into the building.
Alberta Health Services assessed two people at the scene but they were not transported to hospital.
The District Chief for the Calgary Fire Department said that crews were working to try and get people back in the building.
Firefighters went suite by suite and floor by floor to evacuate 18 floors of the building, approximately 100 tenants were given temporary shelter at a nearby casino.
“We equated the problem down to an HVAC issue with atmospheric conditions, snow etc,” said District Chief Bruce Gelhorn. “The fire department is working with building maintenance, ATCO Gas to rectify the problem and we’re just ventilating the building now”.
Victoria Wueschner, who was forced to leave her home, said that residents woke up to alarms and instructions to leave the building because there was an emergency.
“It’s scary because the elevators were down…so you had to go down the stairs,” she said. “Once you get down low enough the doors open up but if you try and go back they’re locked, so you’re locked in the stairwell.”
Some residents were told they would be able to return to their units within an hour or so and were given instructions to open windows.
The Calgary Fire Department said tenants would be able to get back into the building once every unit was checked and that the tower was deemed safe.
The highest recorded levels of carbon monoxide in the building were 100 parts per million, exposure to low levels of CO (200 ppm for 2 hours) can cause headaches, confusion,
dizziness and other symptoms similar to the flu.