For years, Allentown EMS has had carbon monoxide detectors available for crew, but only one detector per ambulance.
After a significant number of carbon monoxide incidents last year, the city moved to get a wearable monitor for each full-time EMS employee.
“We’ve had the meters, but we wanted to take it a step further, use them more,” said Mehmet Barzev, chief of EMS operations for the city of Allentown. Then, earlier this month a carbon monoxide leak sickened nearly 30 children and five adults at an Allentown day care center. Carbon monoxide monitors carried by responding firefighters were crucial to the early detection that the odorless, colorless gas was the culprit.