A single dad and his seven children — five girls and two boys — were found dead late Monday in their home on Maryland’s eastern shore after carbon monoxide from a gas-powered generator suffocated them, police officials said.

“The children were all in beds and it appears as though they were sleeping,” Princess Anne Police Chief Scott Keller told The Associated Press.

Delmarva Power said Tuesday that it had shut off power to the home of Rodney Todd, 36, in Princess Anne, Maryland, after discovering it was illegally connected to the power grid. There had never been a legal connection to the grid while the Todd family lived at the home, the utility firm said.

“Delmarva Power disconnected the illegally connected meter for safety reasons and to comply with standard protocol,” the company said in a statement. “Delmarva Power did not disconnect electric service at this address for nonpayment.”

After electrical power was shut off, Todd bought a generator to heat his home, according to Todd’s stepfather, Lloyd Edwards.

Unpaid electric bills often force people to resort to alternative means of heating and lighting their homes, sometimes with fatal consequences, said Russ Paulsen, executive director of community preparedness at the American Red Cross.

“Folks in impoverished neighborhoods are at six times the risk (of house fires) than people in better off neighborhoods,” Paulsen said, adding that a lack of smoke detectors in poor neighborhoods increases the danger.

The Red Cross distributes smoke detectors for free and provides help for survivors of house or apartment fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. Each smoke detector reduces the risk of death by fire by half, Paulsen added.

“The problem with carbon monoxide is it clouds thinking and it puts you to sleep and then you don’t wake up,” Paulsen told Al Jazeera.

Police, meanwhile, are investigating the deaths and have subpoenaed records relating to Todd’s home from Delmarva Power.

Friends and family said Todd was trying hard to provide for his kids.

“I'm just numb. I'm just numb. Like it's a nightmare but it's not,” Tyisha Luneice Chambers, the children’s mother, told the AP. “If I had known he was without electricity, I would have helped.”

“He was an outstanding dad. ... To keep his seven children warm, he bought a generator, and the carbon monoxide consumed them,” Edwards told the AP.

To support his family, Todd worked at a kitchen at the nearby University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Todd had asked Somerset County to help pay his heating bill in previous years, said Tom VanLandingham, who directs its Office of Home Energy Programs.

“We're all kind of baffled as to why he did not apply this year,” VanLandingham told the AP. “That's the million-dollar question.”

Bonnie Edwards, who told the AP that she was the children's grandmother, identified the two boys as Cameron, 13, and ZhiHeem, 7; and the girls as Tyjuziana, 15, Tykeria, 12, Tynijuzia, 10, TyNiah, 9 and Tybreyia, 6.

With The Associated Press