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EMT With Carbon Monoxide Detector Happens Upon Leak At Long Island Dunkin' Donuts

CARLE PLACE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A customer looking for an early-morning cup of coffee at a Long Island Dunkin' Donuts was in the right place at the right time, and with the right equipment.

The man, an ambulance technician, went into the store in Carle Place around 4 a.m. Friday. He happened to be wearing a carbon monoxide detector, which went off indicating high levels of the gas, authorities said.

The technician rushed the employees out of the store and notified authorities. An investigation found a vent in one of the ovens was the problem.

Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless and prolonged exposure is dangerous.

The close call evokes a deadly incident in February, in which Steven Nelson, 55, a restaurant manager at Legal Sea Foods at the Walt Whitman Shops, died from exposure to carbon monoxide, and more than two dozen other people were treated at hospitals.

A faulty water heater flue pipe was blamed for the leak at that restaurant, authorities said.

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