National Park Service Approved Not-CO-Safe Houseboats

It has happened again. Thursday evening, August 20th on Lake Mead, Nevada an 11-year-old boy died of CO poisoning while playing in the water on an inflatable raft tied-up near the exhaust for the generator of a houseboat his parents had rented for a summer vacation. This is just the latest CO-related death from rental houseboats on Lake Mead and other western lakes that has gone on almost from the very beginning of their introduction to the lakes decades ago. The houseboat involved was rented from Seven Crowns Resorts which has a houseboat rental concession granted by the National Park Service at Echo Bay on Lake Mead. Seven Crown Resorts claims to be “one of the largest houseboat resort companies in the U.S.” and in addition to Lake Mead, rents houseboats on Lake Mohave, Lake Shasta and in the California Delta, according to its website.
Despite the well-known danger of gasoline generators, Seven Crown Resorts continues to operate many houseboats with non-CO-safe gasoline generators. Despite the well-known danger, the National Park Service continues to approve houseboats that have generators that are not CO-safe.

This aging houseboat looks pretty in the picture, but its 8.5kw gasoline Westerbeke generator vents out the side of the hull and another life has been claimed by CO poisoning.

View this local TV news channel video interview of the child’s step-mother at your own discretion --

Edited and annotated News Story by Antonio Planas as it appeared in the August 14th issue of ReviewJournal.com--

Joshua Murphy.

Michael Browning's family spent last week at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area fishing, boating and swimming. They were having so much fun that Browning extended the family vacation. But the family outing turned tragic Thursday night [Aug. 20] when 11-year-old Joshua Murphy turned up missing.

Browning was grilling pork for dinner on a rented houseboat when he discovered his son was nowhere to be found. Browning had last seen the boy on an inflatable raft floating near the beached houseboat. Browning's 19-year-old stepson had been watching Murphy. The family was staying on a Seven Crown Resorts houseboat near Echo Bay.

"I told him Joshua was on the raft," Browning said Sunday. When I looked over to the raft, the raft was there, but Joshua wasn't."

Browning began calling to his son to no avail. He walked to the back of the boat where he found the boy floating facedown in the water.Browning immediately pulled him out of the water and began CPR. Browning said his son was not breathing but had a faint pulse.

Joshua John Murphy

The family called 911. [There was no VHF radio on the houseboat. –Ed.] Family members took turns performing CPR on Murphy. Browning said no more than five minutes had passed between the time his son was seen by a family member and the time he was found in the water...

...Officials with the Lake Mead National Park Service said it took roughly two hours for the boat to be found. Dispatchers were called about 8:45 p.m. Browning said he could see a helicopter flying above, but apparently, the pilot couldn't see the boat. [There were reportedly no distress flares aboard to signal the helicopter. --Ed.]

"They kept going too far north," Browning said. "I kept yelling at the guy on the phone to tell them to turn around and come back."

The boy was eventually airlifted to University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Park service officials said Joshua died from carbon monoxide asphyxiation, with drowning being a contributing factor. The Clark County coroner's office ruled the death an accident, according to the park service...

...Browning said an official from the coroner's office told him carbon monoxide can quickly cause death, especially in children. He also said the coroner didn't find any signs of cuts, abrasions or bruises, which would have indicated that his son slipped while trying to get on the boat.

Browning believes that houseboats should be equipped with spotlights or flare guns to help draw the attention of emergency responders.

Browning said his son's funeral will be in Anaconda, Mont., where Joshua lived with his mother. Browning described his son as full of love. What he'll remember most are the times he and his son shared while camping and fishing. He added that his son was just "coming into his own" as an athlete.

"He seemed to be a gift from God to our family," he said. "For some reason, that gift has been taken away."

BoatTEST.com Says...

Picture of Seven Crown Resorts houseboat from the company’s website. Their boats are reportedly old and, it seems, are virtually unregulated by the National Park Service.

The sad fact is that stories such as this one have come from western lakes where houseboats are rented for years. Like this tragic incident, many of these CO-poisoning deaths have occurred aboard or around houseboats owned and rented by concessions approved by the National Park Service. Spend a little time on Google doing research and you will find a number of websites dedicated to children killed by CO-poisoning by their grieving parents.

The concession holders, the National Park Service, and the two companies in the U.S. still making marine carbureted, non-CO-safe gasoline generators all know about these accidents – and they also know how they can be prevented. About eight years ago one houseboat manufacturer and some houseboat owners took steps on their own to make the gasoline generators less likely to be lethal by people unfamiliar with the danger of CO by affixing high dry-stack exhausts to the houseboats.

Several years later, first Westerbeke, followed by Kohler, began manufacturing CO-Safe gas generators. Kohler took the added step of eliminating all production of non-CO-safe gas generators and now only sells the CO-Safe units.

Westerbeke continues to sell both types of marine gasoline generators, as does Onan.

And, why does the National Park Service continue to allow this unsafe gas generator situation to exist?

Visit coaction.org website to read listings of deaths and near deaths and related accident reports.