It could have "easily" been the end for a Canterbury family of five if they hadn't notice they'd got sick from inhaling odourless and colourless carbon monoxide gas, the fire service says.
The Woodend volunteer fire service was called to a property in Pegasus on Friday night after the father had been running a generator to power appliances in the home.
The accidental poisoning was only picked up after the three children and his wife started to feel "a bit crook".
They were taken to hospital and have since been discharged.
Station officer Kori Howse says the family are recovering and it could have easily turned out much worse.
"They are very lucky to be alive. If it had have been another half hour or so, they would have gone to bed and we would have been going back there sometime this morning and it wouldn't have been a good outcome," says Mr Howse.
"They would've been five family members deceased, in a blunt way of putting it. It would have been a real tragedy for them, and the members of this community in North Canterbury."
He said it was a reminder to have any appliance which emits exhaust fumes to run in the open rather than in an enclosed space where there could be a build-up of gas.
The father has since visited the fire station to go over the events leading up to the accidental poisoning, and he is well aware of how lucky he and his family were.
"They could have lost their lives real easy," Mr Howse says.
Newshub.
