Emergency medical and fire services in Brussels responded to a call at around 8:30 PM on Friday evening on Rue de Roumanie in Saint-Gilles, discovering the lifeless body of a woman.
A friend of the victim had alerted the authorities, reporting that she had not heard from her in two days.
“Our team forced the lock of the apartment’s door on the ground floor of a two-storey building,” Walter Derieuw, spokesperson for the Brussels fire brigade, said.
“Upon entering the apartment, the rescuers’ carbon monoxide (CO) detector was immediately triggered. They opened the windows for ventilation and turned off the gas convector that was running at maximum capacity. The resident, a woman in her thirties, was found unconscious in an armchair. The emergency doctor pronounced her dead on the scene.”
The of the carbon monoxide leak was an old gas convector according to the fire department.
“Other units in the building were also ventilated, and gas installations were inspected. The operations leader on site warned residents that ageing installations could release CO and advised installing CO detectors or replacing them with condensing boilers,” Derieuw added.
In 2024, carbon monoxide poisoning has caused four deaths, 109 hospitalisations, and 41 on-site treatments in the Brussels region.
