When Samantha Griffin unplugged her smoke and carbon monoxide detector, she assumed the continuous alarms was because it was just malfunctioning. Little did she know that her recently-rescued pup would soon show her just how wrong she was.
Griffin, a 38-year-old social worker from Marion, Ind., said that when Luna, her two-year-old husky, started persistently barking to get outside, more than she had ever before, it was odd. This unusual behavior started in late June, just after Griffin began experiencing severe headaches.
“So we just kept thinking it was a power issue. But when Luna started acting up and then I started getting a headache, we [were] just like, something ain’t right,” Griffin said. Luna, adopted from the Speedway Animal Rescue in September, finally took drastic measures to get her owner to listen.
Samantha Griffin and her rescue dog, Luna. Luna recently saved Griffin’s life when she noticed a gas leak. Photo by Griffin
The dog began “pouncing on” Griffin, scratching doors, and refusing to let her rest. Griffin, who was dealing with a debilitating migraine, initially tried to dismiss Luna’s antics. However, Luna’s persistence eventually convinced her to step outside and call for help. “All day long, she was bugging me to go outside. And normally she don’t do that,” Griffin noted.
I think I still have bruises from where she’s hit me — and she scratched up my door and stuff like that, trying to get out, so she was alerting us way before the alarm even went off,” she said.
Finally Griffin contacted the maintenance department of her building. After the local fire department arrived, they found a huge carbon monoxide leak and quickly credited Luna with saving her owner’s life.
Marion Fire Prevention Chief Brandon Eckstein said the apartment’s carbon monoxide levels were “outside of our normal range of point zero nine parts per million.” The source of the leak was traced to a bird’s nest in the flue of the building’s gas water heater. Eckstein said that homeowners should have their “flue pipes checked yearly” and “carbon monoxide detectors close to those natural gas appliances.”
Fire officials warned that keeping an eye on your heating equipment can be the difference between life or death; Photo courtesy of WRTV
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can be deadly if inhaled in large quantities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 400 Americans die from unintentional CO poisoning each year, with over 100,000 emergency room visits and 14,000 hospitalizations.
“The gas company sent out somebody because they had to pinpoint where it was. And he said that it was 97 [parts per million] in my apartment, which he said, during their training, if you’re in a place that’s 50 [parts per million] or above for more than a half hour, you’re dead,” Griffin recounted. “And he said, ‘I don’t know how you lived.'”
“Luna did save my life that day. If she hadn’t gotten me out, I definitely probably would have fallen asleep and just died,” Griffin said. “I’m just so overwhelmed, grateful for all of it. Because I don’t know where I’d be right now without her,” she said.
