Anna Faris had a “stupidly dramatic” Thanksgiving holiday but fortunately for the 13 people involved, it was saved from being dramatically tragic. Anna and a dozen members of her family rented a home in Lake Tahoe, California. As I follow Anna on social media, I was getting a kick out of her live-tweeting her family holiday with her usual quirky wit. She went big for her initial tweet:
My mom would be mortified if she knew I posted this on Twitter. Please stay tuned for thanksgiving minute by minute fun. pic.twitter.com/dooxQEZNTZ
— Anna Faris (@AnnaKFaris) November 27, 2019
And she kept us posted from there:
1145 am. Rented house for family so we could have rooms. You know, to make love in. Which always happens during the holidays. Mom is concerned we don’t have enough garbage bags.
— Anna Faris (@AnnaKFaris) November 27, 2019
1150. Everyone is waiting for me to get my shoes on so we can go for this “walk”.
— Anna Faris (@AnnaKFaris) November 27, 2019
Anna tweeted a few more times, each perpetuating the idea that she was alternating between bickering with her family over chores and hiding in the bathroom to get away from them. It was obviously (mostly) tongue in cheek and I got a kick out of all of it. But things took a bit of a turn with her Black Friday post. At one point on Thanksgiving Day, her posts stopped. And then she put this up on her wall:
I’m not quite sure how to express gratitude to the north Lake Tahoe fire department- we were saved from carbon monoxide- it’s a stupidly dramatic story but I’m feeling very fortunate pic.twitter.com/zqsW77Tda0
— Anna Faris (@AnnaKFaris) November 30, 2019
According to People, the family all suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning and the levels were so high that, had two members not gone to the hospital, they whole group could have died.
Anna Faris has at least one more thing to be thankful for after a scary encounter with carbon monoxide on Thanksgiving.
The actress, 43, celebrated the holiday at a rented vacation home in Lake Tahoe, California, with family last week, when several guests complained of feeling ill. The group of 13 at first wrote it off as potential altitude sickness, the North Tahoe Fire Protection District said in a press release.
Two guests headed to the hospital, where carbon monoxide was determined to be the culprit. That’s when first responders were called to check up on the other 11 guests.
After inspecting the rental home, the safety crew said the living space had more than six times the maximum recommended indoor carbon monoxide levels — even with windows and doors open for ventilation.
Everyone was then treated for their symptoms, and two more were taken to the hospital for care.
Fortunately, Anna’s son, Jack, was not there as he spent Thanksgiving with his dad, Chris Pratt and stepmom, Katherine Schwarzenegger. This whole story is scary as hell and you can read both the relief and gratitude in Anna’s post above. I think I’m identifying with this so much is because renting a place in Tahoe at Thanksgiving was my family’s tradition growing up, and no one had any carbon monoxide detectors at that time. Plus, I would have been one of the family members writing this off as something else, only I’d probably call the folks who went to the ER drama queens.
The CDC lists an average of 430 carbon monoxide deaths each year. It is called the Silent Killer because most of the time, those affected don’t realize they are being poisoned, like Anna’s family. I am shocked by the fact that the CM levels were six times the recommended amount – with the windows open. This is gross negligence on the homeowners part. California requires CM detectors in the home. You have to provide proof of working detectors on your home sale disclosures. Lake Tahoe is a skiing destination, they run furnaces and gas heaters throughout the season, a home that was not able to detect those levels being rented out is criminal. People quotes Mike Schwartz of the Lake Tahoe Fire Department as suggesting folks travel with their own CM detector, just in case. Normally, I would scoff at this, but I honestly took for granted that everyone would update their equipment. So now that I am completely freaked out – please, CB fam, check your detectors and update them if necessary. I highly suggest you invest in one that barks at you when the battery is low. It’s annoying, yes, but it keeps you safe.
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Twitter and Instagram
Uh-oh. Somebody is getting sued.
I can’t imagine renting out a home/VRBO and not having carbon monixide detectors installed.
In Colorado, it’s a requirement.
We have three in our house. They aren’t expensive and each of you should have at least one.
One has gone off once and they are LOUD. You’re going to know if you have a problem.
I really like her show, MOM. I hope she has a good next year.
Sidenote: something learned last week…California is requiring new homes to be built with large vents in the garage, so, people can’t kill themselves with car exhaust in there. Damn.
Maybe the homeowners were negligent, but I also wonder, though, if you have renters in and out week after week, all it takes it one stupid group of folks to hear the chirping, take the batteries out because its annoying, not alert the homeowners, and…. this happens. It’s a good reminder for folks who own VRBOs that checking the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors is a must between each visit. Anyways, glad Ana and her family are okay. Very scary.
You’re not wrong, but it’s still the responsibility of the owners to check the house after each rental group has come through. It’s like any other safety issue, and the onus is on the owner to verify that their rental is safe. It doesn’t matter what another group may have done to the rental.
@ Anna
Yeah I am sure the owners must go through the house to check for damage or stolen items after each renter leaves? It would only make sense. There is no way the owners didn’t know there weren’t any c/o detectors. I am guessing either they were expired and didn’t work at all (they are good for about 7 years) or there weren’t any to begin with. Either way the owner is at fault here.
Yeah, obviously it’s on the homeowners, but if the detectors were physically there but somebody took the batteries out, it would be an easy thing to overlook. Gotta remember to press that test button!
Thank goodness she and her family are all right. I thought CO detectors are required in all homes?
Stories like these compels my husband to bring a CO detector with us on vacations.
Glad they are all OK, that is serious and scary!
Every home should have at least one detector on each floor, And anyone renting their home should be extra careful to make sure everything is always working.
Change the batteries when you change the clock.
This sounds like the setup for a horror movie except the killer is just carbon mono. Is that Anna mom in that bikini?
It’s her mom from when she was younger
Glad they are all ok. On related note – does anyone have any gossip on what the hell happened re. the break up (and subsequent radio silence) with her friend/producing partner Sim on her podcast? They seemed super close – she MARRIED him and his wife not that long ago! I can’t listen to the new ones with her solo – she seems lost and the magic has gone. Such a shame.
Lady B-B: I need to know what happened with Sim, too! He started his own company and is producing other podcasts now, but it seems that neither of them have commented publicly. TBH, I don’t miss him on Unqualified (I thought his advice had become a little too mansplain-y for my taste). I do miss their banter and hearing about Amy & Evan, though. They’d been friends for close to 20 years. Something MAJOR had to have gone down.
How horrible! A little sprite like her son could have been affected the most if he were there. They were very lucky.
Her mom was a stunner!
Ours went off about 6 months ago. Sound scared me and the pooch so badly. We got out and stayed outside until the gas company gave us the all clear. Glad Anna and her family are okay.
Mine went off too a few months ago. I was home alone, but we have a security system that immediately called the Fire Department. I got 2 trucks, plus the chief in his truck, so about 15 guys wandering through the house with their gear in middle of a Florida summer. I felt bad because it just ended up being a defective detector that we had to replace.
Thank god it was just the detector!
I came dangerously close to dying from carbon monoxide poisoning at work years ago, and the scary thing about it is that you just become extremely drowsy and you care about nothing except putting your head down and taking a nap. You are too out-of-it to even question WHY you’re so abnormally sleepy. If the company’s job safety guy hadn’t happened to walk into the office with his carbon monoxide detector on his belt turned on, right when he did, a coworker & i would’ve died because we were both already passed out at our desks.
Yikes, how horrible. So glad your story didn’t end in tragedy. A family in our town just died in their home — they apparently had a new keyless car and didn’t realize it was still running when they went inside and the carbon monoxide leaked into the house from the attached garage. So awful.
I hate those keyless cars!! That’s terrifying!
I have a keyless car and this always has me so worried. I usually go back and check my car in the garage just to make sure it’s off ! I get paranoid but better safe than sorry.
I remember a user on reddit complained about odd symptoms because of carbon monoxide poisining which they didn’t think of at first. They had stuff in their apartement misplaced, found notes they had no idea where they came from. Then notes in their own handwriting with odd messages. At first they thought someone entered the apartment while they were gone and with the notes in their handwriting appearing, a mental illness. Someone had the suggestion to buy a detector and it turned out to be carbon monoxide!
I remember that!! It started out like a weird Memento type situation, a mystery, and ended up being CO. It was that story that made me buy CO detector, for real.
Why would her mother be mortified?
Because Anna shared that photo of her mother in a teeny bikini.
Carbon monoxide fills from bottom up while smoke is top down. Get plug ins with battery backup so they are low to the floor
Isn’t this how a family died in Mexico on vacation last year? I have thought about traveling with my own and I’m glad to hear I’m not overreacting. I’m so glad everything was okay and that their son wasn’t there.
Yes, so scary. 🙁
I remember a news story stating Hotels in America are not legally required to have carbon monoxide detectors. I always thought that was strange. Should be mandatory ! Haven’t googled to see if that law has changed, it was a few years ago.
In 1988 my 3 children and I got carbon monoxide poisoning. I woke up. Kids 10, 9 and 7 were crawling to throw up in potty. They talked like Donald duck. 10 yo passed out and fell off a chair. I was completely dizzy but called hospital somehow. We had no 911 back then in our rural area. We were so full of carbon monoxide in our blood they dont know how we survived. Not much was talked about carbon monoxide back then so did not really know what was happening when it was happening. Very scary. It was caused by a crack in our furnace. We lived at my brothers for a week and got a new furnace. My husband who worked as a track maintainer for CN rail was at a derailment for 5 days so he was not affected. Gives you a new appreciation for life
I have the type of CO detectors that plug into a wall outlet. They do not need a battery and if power to the outlet dies, they send out the chirps to let you know. It’s important to have them in or close to the bedroom and if they are not in each room, test them to make sure they can be heard loudly from each bedroom even with door closed.
We’ve owned one for years and it has alerted us to leaks at least twice. We even have an extra in our pop up camper that I take each camping trip even though the camper is equipped with it’s own. But I just bought 3 more. Carbon monoxide scares the bejesus out of me! Guess I will be taking one every time a bag is packed for an overnight stay. Better safe than sorry. To echo Melody above, gas will stay low to the floor, so mount them near your baseboards. I prefer the plug-ins with battery backup for this reason.
Yes. The thing is new homes that are required to have c/o detectors have them on the ceiling. This is stupid. I have those but went and bought plug in ones. One on each floor and one in my bedroom because my room is on top of the garage. They aren’t expensive and it baffles me how there are people out there who don’t bother buying them ! I mean it’s 20 bucks and they last around 7 years !
This is so scary! We’ve rented a ton of ski cabins up in Tahoe over the years from basic to very high end, and honestly this never occurred to me. So glad everyone is safe. The story was all over our local news.
My great aunt died from carbon monoxide poisoning many years ago. She and her husband were on their weekend houseboat at a lake where they spent time after they retired. A heater on the boat had malfunctioned and they went to sleep not knowing about it. They never woke up. I now really need to check the detectors in our house!!
My ex-BIL lost his father and brother (i can’t recall if he lost any other family members? It was a very long time ago) to CO poisoning years ago. It’s really scary.
CO2 poisoning can happen so fast. In seasonal communities often homes aren’t occupied in, “Off Season.” But CO2 has killed restaurant managers in places fully occupied year round. Fire departments, EMT’s, police, owners of structures, caretakers, Airbnb & any other type of BNB need to take it seriously. Also if you live in a house with an attached garage- be sure the door is fire rated and self closing, and do not ‘warm up the car,’ with the egress (garage) door closed. CO2 is silent and fast.