A woman says her family no longer feels safe in their public housing unit in Saint John, N.B., after a carbon monoxide leak sent her daughter, sister and their caretaker to hospital in critical condition.
Jessica Sypher says the two girls and a family friend they call “papa” have been released from hospital after being airlifted to the Halifax facility to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
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Sypher says she and her mother came back home on Friday night to find the 53-year-old man who was watching her four-year-old daughter and 11-year-old sister struggling to breath while an alarm beeped in the background.
Unable to get inside, the 21-year-old woman says a neighbour helped kick down the door and they found the two girls unconscious as authorities arrived on the scene.
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A platoon chief for the Saint John fire department has said about 30 people were evacuated from the complex and two other residents were sent to a local hospital for evaluation and later released.
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Sypher says the girls have been “traumatized” by the incident, and feels the provincial officials who run the six-unit townhouse should be held responsible.
The leak is under investigation, and a New Brunswick government spokesperson says displaced residents have returned to the building and the boiler has been replaced.