The lint that was expelled from the clothes dryer vents was of such quantity that it not only clogged the boiler when it was sucked into the air intake, but it also caked the side of the hotel. The boiler exhaust—the pipe with the word “Hot” on it—was located directly below the hotel room Dr. and Mrs. Williams had been assigned.

The burner screen within the boiler should normally be clean and “silvery” in appearance. But this photograph depicts the quantities of lint that clogged the screen, thereby preventing oxygen from reaching the boiler’s combustion chamber. With insufficient oxygen, the propane burning was incomplete, and carbon monoxide was generated as a deadly byproduct. Because the safety shutdown had been jumpered, the boiler could not turn off as it was designed to do. A hot water boiler had been converted into a deadly carbon monoxide generator.