RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina hotels and motels soon could be required to have carbon monoxide detectors in the wake of deaths related to the poisonous gas.
The House voted Thursday for the requirement in a bill with dozens of other changes to state and local regulations.
The detector mandates come as a couple died in April and a boy died in June in the same Boone motel room. The room sat above a motel maintenance room with the pool’s heater that authorities say leaked the gas.
The bill would require starting Oct. 1 electric CO detectors in current lodging establishments where fossil-fuel heaters or fireplaces are installed in enclosed rooms or very close by. State construction codes also would include similar requirements for lodging.
The bill now returns to the Senate.