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Police said CO readings reached around 300 parts per million — three times the amount necessary to cause intense headaches and confusion and enough to cause brain damage or death if exposed to for more than an hour.
Police and firefighters got the call just after 10 p.m. from the Holiday Inn Express at 100 Paterson Plank Road, just off Route 17, on a report of activated CO detectors.
The detectors are battery-operated and not hard-wired, so the staff at first thought they simply needed battery changes, Carlstadt detective John Cleary told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
After the batteries were replaced, the detectors activated again, so authorities were called.
All of the 63 guests were the Hampton Inn on Paterson Plank Road, the Best Western in Fairfield and the Residence Inn in Edgewater.
NJ Transit buses and borough vehicles transported them after providing immediate shelter from last night’s rain.
PSE&G responded and pegged the cause as the pool heater, which recently had been repaired.
The hotel staff member was hospitalized after complaining of a severe headache.
The Carlstadt Office of Emergency Management responded, as well, and the borough building inspector was notified, Cleary said.
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