Seasonal bad idea

This sort of thing seems to happen at least once every winter here in Southern California:

Two Long Beach women are recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning after they used a barbecue inside their home to battle the recent wave of chilly weather.

Paramedics were called to a duplex occupied by six family members at 1725 Jackson St. at 9:30 Monday night, according to Long Beach fire Capt. Mike Duree.

When they arrived, they found a 64-year-old woman lying face down, unconscious, on the porch, with her front door cracked open. While she was revived, firefighters searched her side of the duplex and found a small barbecue being used to heat the duplex, Duree said.

Inside they found the victim's daughter, a woman in her 30s. The daughter was conscious, but started showing signs of carbon monoxide poisoning while accompanying her mother to the hospital in an ambulance.

Both women were admitted to Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Officials say both women are showing stable signs Tuesday morning and are expected to survive.

Four other people who are related to the two women live on the other side of the duplex, Duree said. Firefighters made sure everyone was out of the building, then opened windows and doors to clear the air.

The use of a barbecue indoors is never safe because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The thing is, this usually happens to poor people who don't have heating in their home or apartment. But when I saw this on the news this morning, one of the near-dead women's relatives was interviewed and said they had central heating in the house, but they just wanted to "try something different."

Unbelievable.