When two Red Cross volunteers recently visited a Nampa, Idaho, home during a Sound the Alarm smoke alarm installation event, they were in the right place at the right time and may have saved a life.

“It was a Godsend, actually,” said Adrienne Esposito, an Idaho and East Oregon Red Cross board member and one of the volunteers that day.

The homeowner led the volunteers to her garage where she told them one of her alarms wasn’t working.

“It was by the water heater,” Adrienne said. “To take a look, I opened the door and immediately knew something was not right. That carbon monoxide smell. Man, that is horrible”

Esposito’s son-in-law, Eric Owen, who was her volunteer partner that day, couldn’t smell the problem because of allergies. But when he saw the alarm, he knew immediately that it was not a smoke alarm but rather a carbon monoxide detector.

What they still didn’t know was the source of the foul smell, and they thought it could be natural gas.

“She was disoriented so we told her to get her purse, cell phone, anything she needed. We wanted to escort her outside,” Adrienne said.

Adrienne was simultaneously talking on her cell phone with an Intermountain Gas Idaho representative who heard the conversation happening inside the house.

“You need to get out right now,” he said. “Do not open anything, don’t use a light switch. Anything can spark.”

“So, we escorted the homeowner outside immediately. … called her neighbor and drove her to (the neighbor’s home) one street away.”

The volunteer duo then returned to the house and saw that the gas company had already arrived.

“They told us that the (carbon monoxide) readings were so high, (the homeowner) would have died,” Adrienne said. “Either by breathing (the carbon monoxide) or having caused a spark when opening her garage door.”

The gas company technician determined the problem stemmed from a golf cart battery that had “fried,” with its acid emitting the life-threatening carbon monoxide fumes.

Exposure to carbon monoxide can lead to symptoms that can be mistaken for the flu without the fever. Symptoms can include headache, weakness, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, shortness of breath, confusion, blurred vision, drowsiness, loss of muscle control and loss of consciousness.

“My son-in-law and I? We had no idea that was a thing,” Adrienne said. “After that, (when visiting other houses that day for smoke-alarm inspections) we asked to go in to check on any golf carts, because we were in a neighborhood where that’s how a lot of people get around.”

The vice president/branch manager for WaFd Bank in downtown Boise, Adrienne is relatively new to the Red Cross, having joined the board of directors this summer. This was her first volunteer assignment.

“It didn’t really resonate until we got home that night,” Adrienne said. “We really did save a life.”