comment: >
  
  I had to unplug my CO detector because it kept beeping, which gave me a headache, and made me feel dizzy and nauseous.
context: This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  I think you mean CO. And the answer is GTFO and call the fire department >
  
  CO2 is carbon dioxide, average people don’t have CO2 detectors in their home, usually places like fast food restaurants that use CO2 to carbonate fountain beverages have them.
  CO is carbon monoxide. If your CO detector goes off, go outside to fresh air and call emergency services. >
  
  I had to unplug my CO detector because it kept beeping, which gave me a headache, and made me feel dizzy and nauseous. >
  
  Take my toxic gasseous upvote and suffocate on it. (Bravo) >
  
  Go outside IMMEDIATELY and call your gas company. They should send someone out asap. >
  
  I don’t know if this changes in other countries or anything, but call 911 (emergency services) not your gas company. >
  
  As an emergency first responder for the gas company I don’t believe there is ever a time that the fire department doesn’t call us out when someone calls them for CO. On the contrary, I am called out many times directly with people not calling 911. 95% of the time the fire department isn’t needed for the situation. If I need them to vent out the building with their gigantic fans, then I’ll call. CO detectors generally start alarming at around 35PPM CO. If the homeowner calls us immediately all I need to do is open a few windows to get a draft going and in 20 minutes the house is below 5PPM. I’d rather not tie up emergency services when they might be needed elsewhere. Just my take. >
  
  You mean the instructions you didn’t read and threw away was silent on the matter?  Huh. >
  
  You mean a CO detector. Ironically, what you'll want to do is find some O (oxygen). Open windows, and/or go outside. >
  
  I am strangely attracted to this irony.  Perhaps it is magnetic? Maybe it’s just a Fe ling? >
  
  If a CO2 alarm goes off, open windows and just let fresh air flow through the room.
  However if it’s a CO alarm, leave the house immediately and call emergency services and explain that your carbon monoxide alarm is going off as carbon monoxide is a deadly colourless and odourless gas >
  
  Ummm, CO2 is also a deadly, colourless and odourless gas that fools your body into believing that you have enough oxygen and you stop breathing. But I'm pretty sure we're talking about CO here, so get to fresh air call 911 and follow the nice Firefighters directions. >
  
  I dont talk about that. I have never ever talked about having a CO2 detector. Stop putting words in my mouth you coward >
  
  This comment made me smile after a blizzardly lonely Xmas thank you. >
  
  You mean a smoke detector aka fire alarm, or a carbon monoxide detector aka a broken fireplace/furnace/water heater alarm?      For the former, have a fire evacuation plan, call 911, turn off the gas if you can, have a meet up point, emergency kit, and a nearby freinds house to go to.     For the latter, just get outside reasonably quickly (not necessarily jump out window speed), and turn off the gas line if you can, and call the fire department to make sure its all OK in there, and then [edit] have a professional [/edit] fix whatever was releasing the CO. If you feel at all lightheaded on your way out, its time to start rushing. >
  
  You were good until you started telling people to fix things. Do not do that. Do not try to do that. Ever. Your detector might go off in your living room on the main floor and you’re like, I got this. Let me go shut off the furnace and I should be good. Down the basement stairs we go anddddd we’re dead. Why? CO settles and becomes super concentrated very quickly. There’s a reason that the fire department wears their SCBA when venting and investigating CO call outs. Especially when there’s symptoms. >
  
  Make sure its safe to fix it first, and last I checked, you need a license to move and change gas lines from the city, even if you might not for gas being fed from a tank. You can use the outside valve to turn it off to help stop the broken appliance from producing more co, but you can't mess with the inside of the appliance, or the hoses to the appliance without a licence. >
  
  Also, I said call the fire department first to call the all clear - if it is accumulated enough to kill someone, they theoretically wouldn't give the all clear. >
  
  Trust me, only reason I say to not think of fixing it is because people can be dumb under stress of emergencies. Look at grease fires and how many people burn down their kitchens because of it. A lot of those people see fire, panic, and do what they’ve been told their entire lives. Water makes fire go out. In this case, no. No it does not. 
  Off topic: when I typed that, the first thing that popped into my mind when i said “they do what they’ve been told to do their entire lives” was to stop, drop, and roll. 
  I can’t be the only one who realizes we were told and taught to stop, drop, and roll a whole lot for something that happens so rarely in our lives. I chock it up with other things I thought would be problems growing up, quick sand, piranhas, and the Bermuda Triangle. >
  
  Ugh. You leave immediately and call the fire department. Is this not common knowledge? Lol >
  
  Leave, call 911 if you think people have been in it for extended periods.. At a minimum call the local fire department non-emergency number and just tell them your monoxide monitor tripped. >
  
  You should just call 911. This is one of those things that is just better to make a big deal of and let them tell you that you were wrong. You could walk around the house thinking, nothings wrong, the co alarm is faulty. When I’m actuality it’s building up along the floor and slowly climbing. >
  
  I'll agree to that. Seems like there was a stigma when I was growing up at calling 911 at the "wrong time" and that it was serious to do so. It's definitely medically relevant here, though. >
  
  There’s nothing wrong with calling 911 if you think you have an emergency. It’s better to be safer than sorry. 
  I’m a paramedic on a 911 truck in a small city in the Northeast of PA. We frequently get calls for things that make no sense or things that make you wonder why someone would call 911 for that. I actually had someone call 911 because the tip of their finger was throbbing. Of course if you have an exhausting and busy shift and then finally get to relax for a minute and have it interrupted by a 40 something year old complaining of pain in his finger, you’re gonna do some screaming and cursing at the ceiling as you respond, but you’re gonna go. You always will. This time I got there and walked in the door and the guy was drenched in sweat and ghostly white. Holds up his left hand and points to the tip of his ring finger. Says this hurts so bad I can’t breathe. Guy looked like death, so I asked “does anything else hurt?” Guy was like, not really. It’s just the finger. It’s like a bad tooth, the finger tip hurts so bad it’s like a lightning bolt up my arm and into my arm pit. That then shoots across my chest and around my back. But it starts in my finger so I dunno.
  Guy was having a massive heart attack and called 911 saying his finger tip hurt to touch. >
  
  Oh right, I get it. It's just an old habit I'm still breaking is all. >
  
  Totally understand it, just saying not to worry. There’s plenty of people who seriously abuse the 911 system. I’m talking calling 911 because the remote to the TV fell off the bed and they can’t find it without getting up. If you’re not on a first name basis with the local 911 crews, then you’re not abusing the 911 system. 
  Also, as sad as it is, there is nothing that can really be done about 911 abuse. Yeah, it’s illegal and there’s well written laws that make it enforceable and punishable, but good luck finding someone who’s gonna have the balls to do it. Who’s going to arrest the crazy lady who keeps calling 911 because she overheard the ants in the wall plotting to resurrect Hitler and take over the world? The person who does that is gonna be the person who gets sued the next time that lady calls because she feels the ants crawling in her chest and it gets filtered to the police to investigate and they show up at the house and find her dead from a heart attack. As a result, they’d rather just continuously send us to investigate and send a cop along with us to check it out later. >
  
  When I was a freshman in high school, my mom accidentally left the car running in the garage all night. The alarm didn’t wake my mom up but luckily I was still awake so I heard it. I had to go to the hospital for a while to get some oxygen. >
  
  My life safety plan has been: 
  Fire Alarm - Your space is no longer safe, leave as swift and safe as you can
  CO2 Alarm - Your space is no longer safe, leave as swift and safe as you can
  Bugler/ Intruder Alarm - Your space is no longer safe, leave as swift and safe as you can (because you don’t have a panic room or fire power) 
  Doorbell/Knocks from solicitors/strangers - Your space is no longer safe to leave, try to establish panic room
  Visits from family and friends you wish were strangers- Your space is no longer safe, go into panic room if possible and if they are staying over leave as swift and safe as you can
  Phone calls - Your number is no longer safe. Not much you can do here but start over and make all calls from a google voice or blocked number. 
  Roaches - Your home is no longer yours. That’s their home and their things now, leave as swift and safe as you can
  I feel prepared for anything pretty much >
  
  Solid plan >
  
  Funny thing about those CO2 detectors. Most people Mount them right up there with the smoke detector. CO2 is heavier than air, if it gets all the way up to where the smoke detector is you're going to be dead. If it does go off just turn on a fan or open up a door. Then look for why it's going on >
  
  Cuz it's not for CO2. It's for CO. That's less dense than O2. Methane, CH4, also floats, but they add an extra gas in your natural gas so it smells like rotten eggs. It's probably mercaptan, H2S or ,SO2, which is more dense.
  Also meaning, if you smell rotten eggs, you have a gas leak and the air in your house is potentially explosive. Get out and call the emergency crews. It's either natural gas or sewage gas.
  Also, if it smells like fish, it could be propane or butane  if you have tanks of those around. Some RVs use propane as a coolant instead of Freon. >
  
  Apparently a fishy smell can also be an electrical problem. I've never had it happen to me but it comes up on Reddit sometimes. >
  
  CO will slowly suffocate you if the concentration is too high so you need to go somewhere you will get fresh air.
  So when it beeps, get out. Keep the doors open, too. If that's not an option, stick your heard out of a window and stay there. Call 112, 999, 911 or whatever number is relevant to you, depending on where you're from.
  They will try to locate the problem and air out your entire house in the process. >
  
  This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  I think you mean CO. And the answer is GTFO and call the fire department >
  
  CO2 is carbon dioxide, average people don’t have CO2 detectors in their home, usually places like fast food restaurants that use CO2 to carbonate fountain beverages have them.
  CO is carbon monoxide. If your CO detector goes off, go outside to fresh air and call emergency services.