Elkridge, Md. - A carbon monoxide leak prompted the full evacution of a seniors' living facility early Wednesday morning, police say.

Howard County fire officials say about 110 residents were safely evacuated from Colonial Landing Independent Living Senior Facility in Elkridge, where an electrical fire created unsafe levels of carbon monoxide.

Howard County police have confirmed that a four-story apartment building at 6391 Rowan Berry Drive in Elkridge was evacuated early Wednesday morning.

People like Maragaret Chesgreen are out of their homes for likely most of the day. She says shortly after waking up, she saw emergency vehicles parked outside her window. "So then, someone come along and said we had to evacuate. So we went along the hallway knocking on the doors waking everybody up."

And resident Connie Slattery adds, "So then I got a bang on the door: evacuate. So I put my clothes on and took off!"

The residents were sheltered at a Howard County Public Library building right next door. Slattery noted, "We're not gonna get in for hours, according to them. If you got medication, the firemen will go up and get it where you tell them it is."

County fire department spokesman Bill Mould says the evacuation began after a resident reported an odor at the complex in the 6300 block of Rowanberry Drive shortly before 5:30 a.m. The source was determined to be a fire in an electrical line feeding the building.

Deputy Chief John Butler of the Howard County Fire Department stated, "There were concentrations that were high in certain areas of the building; generally throughout the building there were higher than normal concentrations." 

Mould says it is will likely take several hours to restore electricity to the building. He says one person was sent to St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore with breathing trouble.

The experience was a frightening one for some residents, like Alicia Kellough, who said, "It's very scary when you have all these senior citizens in wheelchairs, walkers, to get them all down the floors... Very, very hazardous. People are so scared."

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