David Carrigg, The Province
The deaths of two Vancouver teens while holidaying in India is being linked to improperly installed gas hot-water heaters.

Now the families are warning visitors to India to make sure a bathroom has an open window if one of the heaters, known as gas geysers, has been installed.

"[Gas geysers] are being installed improperly by uncertified technicians all over Punjab," said Kalwinder Manhas, of Vancouver, whose 16-year-old son, Prabhjot (Justin), died in January.

"They have caution labels stating not to install them in a bathroom or kitchen without sufficient ventilation, but that's where they are still being installed."

Manhas, her husband and two sons went to the town of Paldi for a family wedding in January.

Manhas' inlaws had recently built a new home with a gas geyser in the bathroom. A geyser is a small water heater fuelled by propane which is cheaper than traditional electric hot water heating and more efficient than an open flame.

Manhas said the bathroom was not ventilated and she had earlier felt ill while taking a shower.

On the morning of Justin's death, Manhas and her husband went to the temple to speak to a priest.

"Justin said, 'Where are you guys going?' We told him and he said he would take his shower. I said be quick and don't spent too much time in front of the mirror. He would use gel to spike his hair, gorgeous kid. We were gone 35 minutes and when we came back we called out, 'Justin, Justin.'"

The horror set in when Manhas's husband tried to open the door and it was jammed.

"I pushed hard on the door and saw his foot," she said. "Then I started screaming and screaming and the neighbours came in."

Manhas said her husband and surviving son arrived home two weeks later, just before the Dhaliwal family of Surrey went to India.

In their case, 18-year-old Jaskarn (Karny) Dhaliwal took a shower in a relative's home after playing soccer.

He was later found lying on the floor, the shower still running.

"The more we have researched this the more we have learned about other people dying in their bathrooms," said Karny's mom, Gurmit Dhaliwal. "In one case it was a mother and her three children."

Mumbai-based Mahanaga Gas says on its website that a geyser can be installed only where there is adequate ventilation.

An article in India's Sunday Tribune on Feb. 18 said authorities initially attributed bathroom deaths to heart attacks. But when the number went up to eight in a couple of years they looked more closely and found that all the bathrooms were fitted with gas geysers and all the victims had died of carbon-monoxide poisoning.