Treat it as an emergency if you smell gas, see or smell smoke, hear a carbon monoxide alarm, notice a yellow or flickering burner flame, or lose heat entirely in freezing weather. Shut the furnace off, get everyone out if gas or CO is involved, and call from outside.

Leave the House Immediately If

  • You smell gas — rotten eggs or sulfur. Do not flip switches, use your phone indoors, or light anything. Leave, then call the gas utility, then call us.
  • A carbon monoxide alarm sounds. Get everyone and any pets outside into fresh air and call 911. CO is odorless, and symptoms — headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion — are easy to mistake for flu.
  • You see smoke or smell burning beyond the brief dusty smell on the season’s first startup.

Shut It Down and Call Right Away If

  • The burner flame is yellow, orange, or flickering instead of steady blue — a sign of incomplete combustion and possible CO production
  • There is soot or scorching around the furnace or vent
  • The system bangs loudly on ignition, which can indicate delayed ignition of accumulated gas
  • The breaker trips repeatedly
  • You have no heat and outdoor temperatures are at or below freezing

Staying Safe Until We Arrive

Turn the furnace off at the thermostat and, if anything electrical or combustion-related is involved, at the breaker or gas shutoff. Then, critically: do not use unvented alternative heat sources. Never run a gas oven, charcoal grill, camp stove, or unvented propane heater indoors — those are the actual cause of most New Mexico carbon monoxide deaths during cold snaps. Electric space heaters used carefully, with nothing draped over them and nothing flammable within three feet, are the safe option.

Close off unused rooms, layer clothing and blankets, and keep interior doors open where heat is available. If temperatures are below freezing, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls and let a faucet drip — an unheated house is how supply lines end up needing frozen pipe repair.

What Can Wait Until Morning

A furnace short-cycling but still producing heat, one cold room, a mildly noisy blower, or a thermostat needing batteries. Those are worth a scheduled furnace repair visit at standard rates.

Prevention Is the Real Answer

Annual furnace maintenance includes a heat exchanger inspection and combustion analysis with CO testing — the checks that catch these hazards before they become emergencies. Working CO detectors on every level are essential regardless.

We answer emergency heating calls 24/7. Contact B. Carlson across the metro.