Eight people in the Northeastern United States and southern Canada are dead because of poison Carbon Monoxide gas from the petrol-powered generators they were using to cope with widespread power outages from last weekend’s ice storms.

“He was overcome within minutes from the fumes that had built up overnight,” said the Maine Department of Public Safety’s Steve McCausland about the 50-year-old man who went to his garage to refuel a generator that had kept his family warm overnight.  The man collapsed and died in the garage.

The US States of Vermont and Michigan reported similar fatalities, as did Canada in five cases.   

Half a million homes and businesses are still without electricity after the ice storm left as much as two inches of ice in some areas, causing traffic accidents and freezing power lines.  Because temperatures in many areas have not risen above freezing, electrical lines remained encased in ice, which has caused more blackouts, energy companies said.