(AP) - A 47-year-old man, his wife and his son died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a homemade stove Thursday, emergency officials said, the latest in a rash of deaths in Armenia caused by gas leaks and faulty heating stoves.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said the man was burning wood and animal dung in a homemade stove that was poorly ventilated. Officials found the family dead in their home in the village of Yeranos Thursday morning.
The incident brings the number of such deaths in Armenia in the past year to 25, 16 of which occurred in December alone, according to emergency officials. The prosecutor general's office, however, said there had been 24 deaths in 2004 by natural gas poisoning alone.
Many people in the ex-Soviet republic use makeshift stoves and homemade gas heaters, sometimes tapping illegally into gas lines, because their homes lack heaters, which are expensive.
Rescuers have saved eight people from poisoning incidents through the country already this year, the ministry said, and doctors had resuscitate two who had been overcome by gas.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said the man was burning wood and animal dung in a homemade stove that was poorly ventilated. Officials found the family dead in their home in the village of Yeranos Thursday morning.
The incident brings the number of such deaths in Armenia in the past year to 25, 16 of which occurred in December alone, according to emergency officials. The prosecutor general's office, however, said there had been 24 deaths in 2004 by natural gas poisoning alone.
Many people in the ex-Soviet republic use makeshift stoves and homemade gas heaters, sometimes tapping illegally into gas lines, because their homes lack heaters, which are expensive.
Rescuers have saved eight people from poisoning incidents through the country already this year, the ministry said, and doctors had resuscitate two who had been overcome by gas.