Matteo Policano was up past his bedtime playing video games when he heard an unusual beeping noise coming from downstairs. The 10-year-old decided to investigate the cause, a move that firefighters say saved his entire family from a potentially tragic ending.
Initially, Matteo thought the beeping might be from the front door keypad. However, something felt “off” about the sound, so he woke his dad, who went to check it out. They soon discovered that the carbon monoxide detector was going off.
Matteo’s mother, Whitney Policano, initially didn’t think much of it. Since it was 3 a.m., she assumed it was just the batteries needing to be changed and headed back to bed. But then the alarm sounded again, this time upstairs.
“I just turned around, looked at my husband, and said, ‘Get them out of here,'” Whitney recalls telling Inside Edition Digital. The family rushed outside of their Clarksville, West Virginia home and onto the patio, where they called 911.
Firefighters quickly arrived and inspected the basement. One first responder told Whitney, “If [Matteo] hadn’t heard that [beeping] and you hadn’t called us, you guys would’ve probably had about 30 or 40 minutes left.”
The source of the gas was the pool heater, which was seeping carbon monoxide into the basement. “It was colder that night where we live, so it was actually sucking the ventilation off of that heater where it caught on fire on top of the heater. It was pulling that through the actual windows and back into the ventilation system,” Whitney explains.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas known as the “silent killer.” According to the American Lung Association, it can come from various household appliances, including furnaces, ranges, ovens, water heaters, clothes dryers, fireplaces, wood stoves, coal or oil furnaces, space heaters, oil or kerosene heaters, charcoal grills, camp stoves, gas-powered lawn mowers, power tools, and automobile exhaust fumes. About 430 people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Whitney has since decided to stop heating their pool and invested around $600 in new carbon monoxide detectors for her home. “It’s something so simple that you don’t even think about daily,” she says. Matteo also learned an important lesson from the ordeal: the importance of changing the batteries. Fire officials recommend switching batteries every New Year’s Eve to ensure they’re changed on a yearly basis.
“I just think this is such a simple task that families take for granted that would help a lot,” Matteo says.
Matteo’s mom couldn’t be prouder of her son for speaking up, even though he was up way too late. “He knew enough to know that something was wrong and came to us. And I can’t be more thankful for all my family still being here. He should be in trouble because I told him to go to bed, but I’m so grateful he wasn’t,” she adds.
Matt Pinner is a dedicated journalist for WVPrepBB.com, specializing in USA and crime news. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for uncovering the truth, Matt brings timely and insightful reporting to his readers. His work on WVPrepBB.com keeps the community informed and engaged with the latest developments in national news and criminal justice.
