PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP) - Funeral services have been held for a father and his seven children who died of carbon monoxide poisoning at their Maryland home.
Hundreds attended Saturday's services for Rodney Todd and his children at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Police say Todd and his children were poisoned in their sleep days after the power company discovered a stolen meter and cut off electricity to their rental home in Princess Anne. With the power out, Todd bought a generator and put it in his kitchen to keep his family warm. They were found dead April 6.
The children were buried Saturday at Spring Grove Cemetery in Denton, where their mother Tyisha Chambers lives. Their father was buried Sunday at the Harrisville Malone-Madison Cemetery in Madison, near his hometown of Cambridge.
Detectors
In the wake of the deaths of a father and his seven children from carbon monoxide poisoning Somerset County officials are pushing to get detection devices into homes and provide information on the dangers to students.
John Gaddis, superintendent of public schools in the county, told the Salisbury Daily Times that the recent tragedy was a wake-up call for him.
Since the deaths, the paper reports, that several hundred carbon monoxide alarms have been donated to the Princess Anne Fire Department for area families.
The Fire Chief Robert Wells will hand them out to the families of students in the school district where the tragedy occurred.
In addition, the the schools will provide information in the classroom about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
