Posted August 24, 2024

LAKE LURE, N.C. (WLOS) — A group of friends and family had gathered at Lake Lure for what was supposed to be a fun summer getaway to celebrate three birthdays, including Emilie Holochak’s.

But, Holochak said their retreat quickly turned into a life-or-death situation in the middle of the night when they uncovered carbon monoxide in their rental home. Holochak said she and her family met up with their friends Friday morning before it all unfolded.

“This was a group of my friends that are from Raleigh, we all met at Lake Lure… We met on Friday morning, just having a good time, rented a boat, we had golf carts, the whole thing, it was wonderful, cooked, had a great time,” she explained.

The enjoyment of fun quickly took a sour turn.

“It was Saturday at about 2 a.m.,” she said. “Everybody is sleeping and as I mentioned, everybody had sound machines in these bedrooms to drown out noise and help kids sleep – two children in each bedroom and adults. My husband and I and daughter were sleeping in a loft. The door was open, so when the carbon monoxide detector went off at around 2:30 in the morning, we immediately heard it.”

She said she went to check it out and unplugged it and plugged it back in, and it kept going off.

“I woke up a friend, and we decided [to] call 911. They got us connected with the fire department, they sent the fire department and they got there in about 20 minutes,” she said.

After clearing the area, the Lake Lure Fire Department was able to find where the source was coming from.

The dangerous fumes were pouring from the garage, just one room away from where a two-year-old boy was sleeping.

“What we didn’t know is that there’s a huge closet in that room, where one of the two-year-olds was sleeping and we weren’t able to test the levels in that room. We cleared out very quickly but the fireman found the source in the garage. We have four golf carts plugged in. It was the charging station being plugged in; it was emitting all of this carbon monoxide,” she said.

Lake Lure’s Assistant Fire Chief Chris Melton says that situations like this should never be taken lightly, as carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas and it can be fatal without warning.

“When we get a phone call like that, we take it very seriously because of how dangerous carbon monoxide is,” he said.

Group discovers high levels of carbon monoxide at Lake Lure rental (wlos.com)