MELVILLE, NY – Police on Long Island say a man was killed and his wife was hospitalized due to apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, the Associated Press reported.

Suffolk County police say officers responded to report of a couple feeling ill at a home in Melville at about 8:30 AM on February 21.

Police say 55-year-old Stephen Yancofski was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. His wife, 59-year-old Kyriaki Bouziotas, was also hospitalized and was being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police say firefighters suspect a PVC pipe on a basement water heater became loose, filling the house with carbon monoxide.

According to PIX11 News, Bouziotas’ daughter “told police that she received a phone call from her mother, who said she’d been vomiting ‘all morning’ and arrived to find her mother “sick” and her stepfather “unconscious.”

“A 911 operator told the daughter to remove her parents from the home, but she was unable to due to their weakened conditioned, police said,” PIX11 News reported, adding that “investigators believe the family did not have any working carbon monoxide detectors in their home.”

Carbon monoxide is called the “silent killer,” because it is a colorless, odorless gas.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.