By Rober Weddle
Five members of a Long Island family were rescued from death’s door yesterday after a baby raccoon blocked a furnace vent and filled the house with deadly carbon monoxide.
Robert and Claire Grant and their sons — Chris 14, Gary 16 and Guy, 19 — were unconscious or close to it when Chris awoke at 4 A.M.
“I felt dizzy,” he told police, “I tried to go to the bathroom but fainted in the hall.”
His mother, 47, hearing him fall, got up to investigate, found him unconscious on the floor and tried in vain to awaken her husband, a 61 year old real estate agent.
She felt herself passing out but managed to dial 911.
Nassua Police Officers Brad Anderson and Dennis Mentasti rushed to the house at 2426 Spruce St., Sanford, and found the “very disoriented” Mrs. Grant at the front door.
She was incoherent, but the cops, smelling fumes, ran through the house without masks and dragged out all five victims.
Seaford firemen, investigating after the rescue, climbed on the roof looked into the chimney and saw a dead raccoon blocking a flue leading from the gas furnace.
Fumes from the burner — including deadly carbon monoxide gas — had backed up into the house.
The family was rushed to Nassau Medical Center in East Meadow and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. All five went home before noon “in perfectly good health”, said hospital spokesman Ed Smith.
“What a great holiday gift — our lives.” said the father.
