Vicki Wallace says their family trip to a Haven holiday park turned into a ‘traumatising’ experience after she was rushed to hospital when a carbon monoxide alarm went off in the middle of the night
A terrified mum has told how her family were rushed to hospital after a suspected carbon monoxide leak in a Haven holiday park caravan.
Vicki Wallace and her husband Rob had taken their 14-year-old son and another relative to Doniford Bay Holiday Park in Minehead, Somerset, in October. But on the night of their arrival, the 41-year-old heard an alarm going off in the kitchen while she was in bed. She said they were ‘frightened’ when they discovered it was the carbon monoxide alarm, and tried to call security – but claim they did not answer.
The family began to worry further when three of them started felling unwell. Vicki’s son, J, had been complaining of having a headache, Vicki had been suffering unusual chest pains, which she had originally dismissed as her heart condition. The NHS admin worker claims it was not until 20 minutes after the alarm had gone off that a security staff member came and reportedly asked them to turn it off.
But Vicki refused to stay in the caravan and the family was moved to a different property. But they said their chest pains and headaches continued, while one relative suffered from an ‘exceptionally’ high heart-rate. After googling their symptoms, the mum-of-two suspected that they could have carbon monoxide poisoning. Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service attended and confirmed that they used a gas monitor to investigate the property, stating that readings “indicated a suspected low level carbon monoxide leak”.
Firefighters used fans to ventilate the caravan until the readings ‘returned to normal’ but Vicki claims fire crew and paramedics advised the family they needed to be rushed to hospital. Ambulances transferred the group to Musgrove Park Hospital, where Vicki said they immediately had blood tests and were all given oxygen, while they were treated for nine hours.
When the family got back from the hospital, Vicki says Haven denied that there had been any carbon monoxide leak and when she asked to see the fire service report, claims she was refused and told it was ‘belonged to Haven’. After being contacted by journalists, Haven said there had been ‘very low-level readings’ of carbon monoxide but claimed it was ‘not classified as a health risk’.
Vicki, from Swindon, Wiltshire, said: “If I hadn’t been vigilant or if my [relative] hasn’t said he doesn’t feel well, I wouldn’t have called an ambulance. I specifically asked the fire brigade and the paramedics if we should go to hospital and they said based on the levels they found, they couldn’t in good conscience leave us in the caravan without being checked out. [Haven] can hide behind [saying it was] ‘low level’ but it was obviously high enough to set off the alarm. It doesn’t matter if it was low level carbon monoxide, there was still carbon monoxide that shouldn’t have been there.”
The mum says that her son is still traumatised from the incident as he is ‘frightened’ of carbon monoxide and constantly checks the alarm. Vicki said: “They just didn’t care. They couldn’t explain to us why we are the only van affected. They said the van was definitely clean and there was no carbon monoxide found. We asked to see the report from the fire brigade, but they said we aren’t allowed to see it because it belonged to Haven.
“Because my son’s autistic, he was looking at all the alarms in the room thinking they would go off. My son didn’t sleep, he was so frightened from what was going on. I have now had to put carbon monoxide monitors everywhere in my house to make him comfortable. We’re not staying at a caravan ever again. This was our only weekend away in the entire year.
“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what we did. It may have been ‘low level’ but we went to hospital on the advice of fire and ambulance. It does not bear thinking about if the alarm didn’t go off.”
A spokesperson from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said: “On arrival, one adult and two children had already evacuated and were feeling unwell. A smell of gas was confirmed as coming from the caravan. Crews used breathing apparatus, thermal imaging, and a gas monitor to investigate the property, and readings indicated a suspected low level carbon monoxide leak. Crews isolated and disconnected gas cylinders connected to the property and used a battery-operated fan to help ventilate the caravan and return readings to normal. Casualties were left in the hands of ambulance services.”
Haven said that the fire brigade’s investigation found ‘very low-level readings’ but claimed these were ‘not classified as a health risk’. It said that its teams acted quickly and the gas supply to the caravan was immediately turned off and the family were moved to another caravan, while a welfare check was carried out the next day.
A Haven spokesperson said: “The health and safety of our guests is our number one priority. Following the reported incident, an investigation was conducted by both the fire brigade and a third-party specialist, who advised that no further action was necessary.”
