Dustin Weis | WiscNews

Washing the floor ended in a trip to the emergency room for a Madison man Tuesday because of a case of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A handyman working for Manchester Properties apartments at 2545 Airport Road was driven to Divine Savior Healthcare when he began to feel "groggy and woozy," Portage Police Chief Ken Manthey said. He had been operating a gasoline-powered pressure washer in an underground parking garage for several hours.

The building's manager, Valicia Denson, said she asked 39-year-old Dave Satter to wash the floors of the garage Tuesday morning, and he became ill with carbon monoxide poisoning after several hours of exposure.

"I had asked him to use a garden hose to wash off the basement garage floor," Denson said. "I don't know what gave him the great idea of using a gas-powered pressure washer."

Manthey said Satter was "still pretty confused" in Divine Savior's emergency room Tuesday afternoon, and hospital staff considered having him transported by medical helicopter to a hospital in Appleton.

Hospital spokewoman Jenny Sauer said Tuesday afternoon Satter had not been transferred elsewhere, and doctors would decide where he could best be treated once they had finished observing him.

As a safety precaution, Portage police evacuated residents of the 13-unit building Satter was working under as firefighters moved from apartment to apartment in protective breathing gear measuring carbon monoxide levels.

Fire Chief Clayton Simonson said residents of the building outside the garage were not in any serious danger, but firefighters did find one apartment with carbon monoxide readings of 47 parts per million.

Simonson said carbon monoxide concentrations of more than 35 parts per million are generally considered a cause for concern. By contrast, the area Satter was working in still registered 250 parts per million by the time firefighters arrived on the scene with equipment.

Carbon monoxide concentrations of 400 parts per million or higher can be fatal to humans in continuous exposure situations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC estimates that more than 500 Americans die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning annually, and strongly advises against running any kind of combustion engine in an enclosed space for prolonged periods.

"It wasn't a good idea at all," Simonson said. "You need proper ventilation in a situation like that."

Denson said that, like most apartment garages, Manchester Properties is equipped with a ventilation system attached to a carbon monoxide sensor that kicks in when carbon monoxide levels get too high. However, a blown fuse in the unit prevented it from engaging and siphoning some of the gas out of the garage.

"We test the system every month," Denson said, "and we've never had a problem. Even so, (Satter) shouldn't have been down there running that machine."

A resident of the apartment that registered above-normal levels of carbon monoxide, Jennifer Marchand, said she and her 4- and 5-year-old sons were home all morning while Satter was working in the garage below their apartment. She was thankful her boys were outside most of the morning, but said she did not notice anything amiss while she was inside.

Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, and can only be detected with a carbon monoxide detector.

"I didn't notice nothing," Marchand said, " but it is kind of scary, though."