GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On December 22nd, Cindy Hammond found her parents, Barbara and Robert Modzeleski, and her brother, Tim, all dead inside their Kent County home. The cause, a deadly amount of carbon monoxide from an old boiler inside the home.
Now, the surviving children want others to be aware of the danger that could unknowingly be in other people's houses.
"It can be a silent killer," says Roy Modzeleski, one of Barbara and Robert's sons.
Silent and odorless.
And in the Modzeleski home, there were no detectors.
"Without having a carbon monoxide detector and knowing, nothing could be done," says Linda Munro, one of the Modzeleski daughters.
No way of knowing there were 2,000 parts per million (ppm) of carbon monoxide in the house's air, the same level a standard car emits. Only 800 ppm would've been enough to kill anyone in less than an hour, including the fire crew that came to help out.
"They couldn't even come in the house to do anything," says Munro. "They had to wait it was that bad."
The cause of the build-up? A dirty boiler in the basement.
"It was so much soot you could not see down through the coils," says Modzeleski.
Blocking the carbon monoxide from exiting the home. Modzeleski noticed the family was without detectors one night.
"I said do you guys have carbon monoxide detectors? She says no, I'm gonna get one," he remembers.
They never did.
"I should have just said I'm gonna go get one," says Modzeleski.
Now, they want others to know the importance of having them in your home.
"You can get them free at most of the fire departments," says Munro. "You call them you set up a day and time they'll even install them for you."
As well as keeping your boilers and furnaces clean, she suggested you take a look at them at least once a year. Something they wish their parents had done, a duo the family remembers as adventurous and full of life.
"They'd get in the water with us tubing down the river," says Hammond. "Snowmobile and motorcycle, and my dad was an avid was a bowler and a hunter."
Their brother, Tim, lived with his parents his whole life after a traumatic brain injury when he was 16.
"Fun loving, easy going," says Hammond of her brother.
All taken suddenly by the silent killer the Modzeleski's hope never strikes again.
"We loved them and they loved us back," says Modzeleski. "Unconditional."
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral costs and other expenses, you can find that by clicking here.
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