A kitten is credited with the saving the lives of a Michigan family.
A 4-month-old kitten named Thor screamed his little head off, alerting his sleeping humans to a deadly leak of carbon monoxide that was filling their Michigan home, according to fire officials.
After a power outage in their area, the Stamper family hooked up a generator in their garage to run their house. But the garage door was accidentally closing, leading to lethal carbon monoxide leaking indoors.
Heidi and Ronald Stamper, their daughter Paige, 13, and son, Quinn, 11, were asleep in their beds as the toxic gas seeped inside, according to the Farmington Hills Fire Department.
Thor began screeching as he became sickened, leading his human mom to take him outside, where he seemed to recover.
Heidi and Thor went back into the house, where Heidi went back to sleep. Thor was wide awake and again began screaming, this time waking the children, who managed to rouse their semi-conscious parents and get them outside, fire officials said.
“This is a frightening example of how carbon monoxide can accumulate quickly and potentially be fatal,” said Farmington Hills Fire Chief Jon Unruh. “Fortunately, this incident had a positive ending, but we hope all families will learn from the Stampers and keep their generators outside.”
The family was hospitalized and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning following the Aug. 30 incident.
Fire authorities warned that generators should never be operated inside any kind of structure and should only be used when they are outside, away from doors and windows.
