Carbon monoxide leak blamed on restaurant's charcoal burner

WALTHAM - Lethal levels of carbon monoxide from a Moody Street restaurant built up and seeped into upstairs apartments early this morning, setting off an alarm and awakening one resident, who officials say is lucky to be alive.
Brian Levy said he was awakened by the carbon monoxide detector the previous tenants had left in his Cushing Street apartment about 2 a.m. He opened the windows and called the fire department.
"I'm frantic. I want to move out,'' Levy, a Brandeis University and New England Conservatory student who has lived in the apartment since September, said. ``It's a really scary thing. I don't feel safe here anymore.''
Deputy Fire Chief Mike Quinn said the toxic gas came from a charcoal-burning cooker that was left on in the Jewel of India restaurant at 380 Moody St. Carbon monoxide levels in the restaurant were about 1,900 ppm when firefighters arrived, he said.
Quinn said levels in Levy's apartment had reached about 35 ppm when the detector sounded and woke him up.
``It's hard to say how long it was going on. (The carbon monoxide) obviously leaked through the walls or the pipes,'' Quinn said. ``It was at the point where serious consequences would have occurred.''
He said long periods of exposure to carbon monoxide causes dizziness, nausea, headaches, and even death. It is similar to smoke inhalation at a fire.The toxic gas replaces the oxygen in the body, he said.
Levy said he still had a headache this afternoon, but was not taken to the hospital.
Jewel of India owner Innocent Sherring said he does not believe the carbon monoxide could have come from his restaurant, because the charcoal-burning cooker has an exhaust fan above it and is nowhere near the apartments.
He said the cooker is in the back of the restaurant, and the apartments begin sharing floor/ceiling space in the middle of its dining room about 60 feet away.
``I'm waiting to talk to the fire department,'' he said. ``How can it be? It's unbelievable. How can carbon monoxide get up there, there is nothing (above the kitchen.)''
He said he has owned the Jewel of India for two years, but the restaurant has been at 380 Moody St. for about 16 years.
``Nothing has changed,'' he said.
According to a fire report, attempts by officials to contact Sherring were unsuccessful at the time of the incident, and firefighters forced their way into the restaurant to investigate the source of the gas. Firefighters turned on the exhaust cooking fan and used two other fan to ventilate the building.
Quinn said they put on protective equipment, including self-contained breathing apparatus, before entering the restaurant.
Levy said he and the tenants of the other five apartments in the building were allowed back in about 4 a.m.. He said he spent the rest of the night with the windows open.
``This is a wake-up call,'' he said. ``It's a scary thing.''
Levy said he is contemplating consulting a lawyer regarding the incident, especially since Quinn said the cooking methods used in Sherring's restaurant are ``unacceptable.''
``I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier,'' Quinn said. ``They will be educated. They have been told the procedures they were using are unacceptable.''
Fire officials were expected to inspect the restaurant today about 1 p.m.
A law requiring homes to have carbon monoxide detectors went into effect March 1, 2006.
``If it had not been for the (carbon monoxide) detector in the upstairs apartment, it would have been a pretty good, sure bet that there would have been death,'' said Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan. ``What we have here is an example of that law saving lives.''
Jennifer Roy is a Daily News staff writer. She can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jroy@cnc.com.