When she came in to work Thursday morning, Susan Procina stepped into the building and was met with a strong odor of natural gas.

That was around 9 a.m. After realizing the odor, Procina, fiscal technician of Carbon County Action Committee, which is housed in a building on South Second Street in Lehighton, decided to move her car across the street and warn a few of the other tenants who occupy apartments located in the same building.

When Brian Kroboth, weatherization supervisor of Carbon County Action Committee, arrived, he said that it only took a few steps into the building to realize it wasn’t safe inside.

“The windows were a little more frosted than usual in the wintertime, and I usually have a Snifit (carbon monoxide monitor) in my truck ’cause I run the weatherization fringe repair program for the county,” Kroboth said.

“I brought it in with me, and two steps in it was over 40 parts per million.”

Within the hour, firefighters from the Lehighton Fire Department were dispatched to the scene. A total of 11 occupants were evacuated. Fire Chief Pat Mriss said firefighters detected carbon monoxide, and spent around an hour ventilating the building.

The utility service controlling the building’s gas, UGI Utilities, shut it off for safety.

It turns out Procina and Kroboth were picking up on odors emitted by a faulty boiler, which led to carbon monoxide in the building.

By midmorning, occupants were allowed to return to their dwellings.

“We’re just trying to get warmed up now,” Kimberley Miller, executive director of Carbon County Action Committee, said soon after the evacuation took place. “It could have been worse. I’m grateful for the quick response of both the fire department and UGI.”