GC licensing isn't some new regulation. It's been around for a lot longer than 30 years in most states. In Colorado, carpenters and other general contractor's are licensed at the municipal/county level, not the state level. All counties in Colorado require general contractors to be licensed except the most rural counties.
It's one thing to build a chimney that accidentally traps fumes. It's another to do so deliberately. This sort of stunt in CA would be (and 30 years ago, still would have been) a criminal act.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure your friend is either outright lying or exaggerating the truth to ridiculous extremes.
It's more common to die from CO when the whole house is burning, but it isn't a sure thing even then.
I have no idea where you got this statistic from, but the primary cause of death from fires is smoke inhalation, not CO inhalation. CO inhalation deaths are greatest in the winters when people run their fireplaces with the chimney flues closed or faulty internal heaters.
This may come as a surprise, but I live in a rural county, and the house we're talking about is in an even more rural county. It's curious, that on HN we Americans are always reminded not to assume anything about other cultures (and rightly so), but we're eager in turn to assume all sorts of things about other states we've never seen. You've got some strong emotions about how remodeling should be done and paid for, but not everyone feels the same as you do. Certainly not everyone felt that way decades before you even thought about construction. California (or whatever other state you're referencing) is not a microcosm of the rest of the nation.
Anyway, you're wrong about that state too. Lots of remodeling gets done there, too, without the involvement of licensed general contractors.
It's one thing to build a chimney that accidentally traps fumes. It's another to do so deliberately. This sort of stunt in CA would be (and 30 years ago, still would have been) a criminal act.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure your friend is either outright lying or exaggerating the truth to ridiculous extremes.
It's more common to die from CO when the whole house is burning, but it isn't a sure thing even then.
I have no idea where you got this statistic from, but the primary cause of death from fires is smoke inhalation, not CO inhalation. CO inhalation deaths are greatest in the winters when people run their fireplaces with the chimney flues closed or faulty internal heaters.