Apartment Manager Warned of Faulty Water Heaters Before Idaho Man’s Death

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The former maintenance supervisor of an apartment where a tenant died of carbon monoxide poisoning last fall says she pleaded to property owners to fix faulty water heaters months before the death.

Sheila Thomason, former maintenance supervisor for First Rate Property Management, told the Idaho Statesman Thursday she distributed carbon monoxide detectors and letters warning tenants several months before 18-year-old McQuen Forbush died of carbon monoxide poisoning at Meridian's Sagecrest Apartments. She took the action after a plumber found water heaters at 26 apartments were creating very high gas levels.

Forbush's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the property owner, the management company and others. Michael Haman, attorney for property owner Matthew Switzer, says Switzer was unaware of any widespread problems with water heaters at the complex.