By Christopher Leach
Lexington Herald-Leader
(TNS)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A paramedic who responded to a Lexington apartment complex two hours before a person was found dead of a suspected gas leak Monday did not detect carbon monoxide during the visit, according to the city fire department.
The paramedic arrived around 2 a.m. for a report of a sick person at Oxford Circle Apartments, near Versailles Road in the Cardinal Valley neighborhood. The paramedic went inside an apartment unit and cared for the patient until an ambulance arrived.
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The paramedic had a carbon monoxide monitor, which is routine for officials aboard firetrucks, ladder trucks and emergency care vehicles, said a spokesperson for the Lexington Fire Department. The monitor is supposed to make noise when it detects carbon monoxide, but it did not.
But about two hours later, paramedics were called back to the home, this time for a different, unconscious person. The man, 62-year-old Samuel Gross, was pronounced dead at the scene from a suspected gas leak, and 11 others were injured but are expected to survive.
This time, paramedics’ carbon monoxide detectors did go off, alerting them to the gas leak.
The two-story, 32-unit apartment building has been condemned while the owner, Oxford KDR LLC works on repairs. The complex is expected to reopen in about a week if it passes state plumbing and city code enforcement inspections, said Susan Straub, spokesperson for the city.
In the meantime, the city has provided short-term hotel stays and other assistance for the displaced residents, Straub said. The city’s Office of Housing Advocacy and Community Development has taken applications for assistance from 20 units of the building and contacted each tenant.
Code Enforcement staff members are investigating the gas leak with local and state officials, as well as Columbia Gas, Straub said. The cause of the gas leak has not been determined.
The building was built in 1965 and has changed hands several times in the past 25 years. Oxford KDR LLC bought the complex in 2019 for $1.1 million.
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