 It's an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is virtually undetectable. Carbon monoxide can quickly fill small enclosed spaces such as fish houses. Mel Meyer has more on this hidden hazard. It can happen at any time of the year. But carbon monoxide incidents are especially common during the winter months when people are trying to get warm. So anything that burns is going to give off carbon monoxide. When you start your oven, it's going to give off a little bit of carbon monoxide and that's natural. When you start your oven, furnace, even kerosene or oil lamps malfunction, they can release the gas in toxic amounts. Anything that heats like that, that needs servicing, that's not burning efficiently, then you're going to get build-ups of carbon monoxide. Once it builds, that's when the symptoms set in. If you're feeling like the flu-like symptoms, the nausea, dizziness, and worst case scenario, if somebody starts to pass out or lose consciousness, you need to get to fresh air. Air Med rapidly responds to calls along with other first responders. Once they arrive, it is important to have some information available. Name, date of birth, medications, a very clear history of what has happened really helps. The medical team will give oxygen or push air into the lungs until they can get to the hospital. To go away, oftentimes you need hyperbaric or oxygen therapy. Which is why prevention is so important. The only way to detect the gas is with a carbon monoxide alarm. Luckily, most of the carbon monoxide calls the fire department responds to turn out to be false alarms. You really don't know if the detector is bad or if you have it. So it's easy for us to come up and check that with our monitors. A simple carbon monoxide alarm like this one can run for about $20 at a local hardware store up to about 50 for one that also alerts you to smoke and fire. In Bemidji, I'm Mal Meyer, Lakeland News. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there was an average of 430 deaths per year since 1999 to 2010. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.