Carbon Monoxide Leak at Midtown High Rise Forces Evacuations

Residents of a Midtown condominium complex were briefly forced from their homes after firefighters detected pockets of carbon monoxide in the building Friday morning, WSB-TV said.

Firefighters went floor to floor at The Atlantic condos evacuating residents and relocating them to the lobby or the fifth floor, areas where no carbon monoxide was detected. An Atlanta Fire Department spokesman told WSB-TV that fire crews would not have sent residents outside the building into the bitter cold. After several hours, firefighters allowed residents to return to their homes.

The spokesman told WSB-TV that fire crews were unable to determine the exact source of the deadly gas, saying that air circulates constantly in a building as massive as the 46-story Atlantic condos. The spokesman said that levels of carbon monoxide inside the building were now low enough to allow residents to return to their homes.