Woman dies allegedly from carbon monoxide poisoning during load shedding

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a Pakistani woman in Johannesburg during load shedding.

It is understood the grim discovery was made on Wednesday morning, after the woman and her family were not responding to calls.

The family was found by their neighbour and they were all unconscious.

Dr Khalid M Mirza, member of the Overseas Pakistanis Advisory Council (OPAC) Africa told The Citizen, the matter has been reported to the police and is being investigated.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning

“I would like to inform you with profound sadness that a family of Pakistani origin in Johannesburg, have lost their member, due to what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning and the other 3 members are in a critical condition, struggling for their lives in intensive care unit in a private hospital.”

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“According to reports, during load shedding last night, unfortunately the family fell asleep leaving their generator on in a garage with closed doors,” Mirza said.

Mirza has conveyed his condolences to the family.

“May Allah grant Jannatul Firdous to the deceased and full recovery to those who are hospitalised. I would like to make a humble request to have a dedicated generator room away from main living areas, so that an incident of this nature doesn’t happen again,” Mirza said.

Load shedding

With the exacerbated bouts of load shedding being implemented by Eskom, South Africans have been using alternate power sources including generators, inverters and gas lamps amongst others to keep the lights on.

However, residents have been advised to ensure that these appliances are keep in a well ventilated area away from people.

Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that stage 3 load shedding will continue until further notice.

It’s been touch and go with the nation’s power supply this week since the ailing parastatal on Tuesday morning, moved the country to stage 4 load shedding.

South Africa was on stage 2 since the early hours of Monday morning, until Eskom suddenly ramped up the rolling blackouts citing generating units breaking down.

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