Carbon Monoxide Safety When You Live Alone

Early CO symptoms include persistent headache, dizziness, nausea, and confusion. If you feel these symptoms at home and they ease when you go outside, suspect CO immediately. If your CO alarm sounds, leave the building straight away, leave the door open, and call emergency services from outside. Do not re-enter until the property has been declared safe. Never run petrol generators, barbecues, or camping stoves indoors or in an attached garage.

Carbon monoxide is called the silent killer because it can render you unconscious before you understand what is happening, and when you live alone there is no one in the next room to notice your symptoms or open a window. If CO overcomes you overnight, the first sign to the outside world may simply be that you stopped answering messages. That is why deciding in advance who checks on you, and how quickly, matters as much as the alarm on your wall. Set a daily check-in with I'm Alive and list the people who should be contacted if you go quiet. When you miss your check-in window, the app escalates and alerts them automatically, turning your silence into an action prompt instead of a mystery. I'm Alive is a check-in tool, not a location tracker, so it does not monitor where you are day to day. Your location is shared only when you trigger an emergency or miss a check-in, and that data is deleted after 72 hours. Brief your contacts on what to do the moment they are alerted. Ask them to call you first, and if you do not answer, to request a welfare check and specifically mention possible carbon monoxide so responders arrive with detectors and ventilate the property before entering. Tell them where a spare key is and to leave the door open if they let themselves in. Because CO symptoms of confusion and drowsiness can stop you helping yourself, this outside layer of monitoring is what closes the gap between exposure and rescue for someone who lives alone.