Five Die from Faulty Heater in Argentine Cold Wave

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articlenopicBUENOS AIRES – Five members of a family died in the western Argentine city of Mendoza from carbon-monoxide poisoning due to a faulty heater, police said Monday.

With this incident, 51 people have now died in Argentina during the current Southern Hemisphere winter from carbon-monoxide poisoning, the head of the independent aid organization Solidarity Network, Juan Carr, told Efe.

Meanwhile, 14 homeless people have died from hypothermia, according to statistics from Carr’s group.

The latest fatalities were a married couple and their three children, who were found dead Sunday night by a neighbor in Mendoza, 1,000 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

The cause of the tragedy was the poor ventilation of a gas heater, police officials said.

Each year in Argentina the cold winter weather causes 80 to 100 fatalities, between deaths from hypothermia to inhaling carbon monoxide, according to Solidarity Network, which estimates that some 20,000 people sleep on the streets of the South American country.

Government forecasters call for heavy frost and the possibility of snow in southern Argentina and in the Andes mountains. EFE

Source: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361684&CategoryId=14093

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