Police: Mom lit grill to heat house

Five members of a Brentwood family were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning Wednesday after the mother lit a charcoal grill for heat because the household had run out of heating oil, police said.

Marie Claudia Blaise, 43, was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, Suffolk County police said. She was hospitalized at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow in serious condition Wednesday morning, where she was undergoing hyperbaric treatment, officials said.

Her husband, Yves Blaise, 49, daughters Frandia, 16, and Francysca, 10, and son Claudys, 13, were treated at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore and released, police said.

Blaise said the charge against his wife was unnecessary. "Everyone knows it was an accident," Blaise said.

Police said it was very nearly a deadly accident.

Yves Blaise awoke to find his wife passed out in the room where the barbecue had been lit and called 911. Yves Blaise said he revived his wife and "asked her, 'Do you want an ambulance?' She said yes, and I knew she was in trouble."

Police said as Third Precinct officers Chris Ingwersen and Daniel Salvatore attempted to help the mother about 4 a.m., Claudys Blaise "dropped to the floor" unconscious in front of them and Francysca slipped into semiconsciousness. Ingwersen, Salvatore and other precinct officers got everyone out of the home, police said.

Marie Claudia was taken to Southside along with the rest of her family, but was later transferred to NUMC.

Burning charcoal produces carbon monoxide, a deadly, colorless, tasteless, odorless gas, police said.