Eight people who included three adults and five children were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning in an unincorporated part of San Mateo County near Redwood City.

Acting Battalion Chief Glenn Grant of the Menlo Park Fire District said the house on the 200 block of Fourth Avenue had its electricity turned off and was being powered by a gas generator placed in the basement

Grant said firefighters received a call around 8:35 p. m. about a child who was vomiting and losing consciousness. When the firefighters arrived at the house all eight residents of the 1,400 were ill and three of the children were unconsciousness but quickly revived with oxygen said fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman. "As soon as our firefighters walked into the house, they could smell fumes - the exhaust from the generator," Grant said.

All eight were taken to both Stanford and Kaiser hospitals and their conditions were unknown. Schapelhouman said they had started using a 4,000 watt portable generator two days ago when there electricity was turned off due to unpaid utility bills. He said that firefighters found extension cords snaking from the generator in the basement into the home and an illegally converted detached garage.

Grant said he did not know how long the generator which was being used to power several appliances in the house had been on. "I don't know how serious it is and how long they were subjected to that," Grant said. "There was a little bit of a language barrier."

The level of carbon monoxide, an odorless, tasteless and colorless gas which is highly toxic was at the highest level inside the house. "It completely peaked," Schapelhouman said of the meter. "It couldn't read any higher. It wouldn't have taken very much longer," he added. "Another 10 minutes and we would have begun to see fatalities."

The eight people were watching television when one of the children fell ill and was unresponsive. He said though there were about 12 people inside the home when firefighters arrived, not all had gotten sick.

The chief said they were expected to be released from the hospital late Wednesday night or early this morning, but will not be allowed to return to the home because of numerous fire code violations and the lack of working utilities and the home will likely be declared uninhabitable until the violations are addressed. The eight occupants will be offered Red Cross assistance, Schapelhouman said.