Nine members of a British family, including three young children, allegedly suffered carbon monoxide poisoning on a Christmas ski holiday after a large amount of snow apparently blocked the air flow into their French chalet.
The family is considering taking legal action against the tour operator, Skiworld, and has already instructed personal injury lawyers to act on their behalf.
All nine members of the family had to be given oxygen and taken from Chalet Hellebore in La Plagne Soleil to a nearby hospital after first one of the children and then the parents started suffering the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning in the early hours of the morning.
The father managed to raise the alarm before almost passing out.
A spokesman for Skiworld told PlanetSKI that the company had been providing chalet holidays for more than 30 years and this was the first incident of its kind.
"We put the health and safety of our guests at the very centre of our operations.
"Our thoughts are naturally with the Elliott family for the distress and upset experienced, and we are very sorry that they have suffered as a result of this incident.
"At the time our staff were immediately on site and did all they could to assist.
"Snow conditions in the Alps have been unprecedented and described as a ‘once in a thirty-year event’ and it was a build-up of a very considerable amount of snow that blocked an air intake flue that we understand caused the incident.
"All our chalets are fitted with smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.
"As this case is subject to legal action we are not in a position to comment further."
