I was awoken this morning about an hour before I had any intentions of getting out of bed. It had something to do with the loud obnoxious sound of our smoke detector.
I sat up and bed and wondered why it would be going off. Eventually I realized it was possible we had a fire. I jumped up and ran out into the hall. My head turning wildly from side to side looking for smokes or flames. I didn’t see any. My kids were standing there in PJ’s looking up at the alarm. I realized the batteries had probably gone bad again.
We have a direct wired smoke alarm. It runs on electric. It also has a battery in case the power goes out. When the batteries get weak it beeps to remind you to change them. This alarm was doing way more than an occasional warning beep. It was in full out alarm mode. I couldn’t figure out how to get it down.
The high pitched beeping started to make me crazy. The dogs started howling. Considering they are part beagle, they know how to howl! My youngest, who has never had the privilege of having a fire drill courtesy of our local public school, was remarkable calm.
“We are having a fire”, she remarked casually. “We have to leave the building and meet at the mail box.” She then started crawling down the hall on all fours towards the front door.
My oldest and I have been scared senseless by fire safety education and we weren’t quite so calm. I grabbed the broom and bashed the hell out that alarm while my oldest daughter ran around yelling, “Call 911!” Did I mention the dogs were howling and my other daughter was standing outside in 22-degree weather in her PJ’s?
I finally heard the satisfying sound of cracking plastic and the alarm fell down from the wall. Not completely down. It was hanging by wires from the ceiling like a Piñata. I had a broom.
My oldest collected herself and got me a chair. I disconnected the alarm. My ears started to hear again. I realized the smoke alarm downstairs was also going off. They are connected. If one goes off, so does the other. It’s for my safety. My broom and I headed downstairs with the howling dogs.
I had perfected my smoke alarm bashing skill with the first alarm. I had this one down in less than three whacks. My daughter showed up with a chair a few seconds later. I disconnected the alarm. I sat the alarm down and took a breath. It started to beep again! I ripped out the battery. It started making weak beeping sounds. In my book, No power + No battery = No sound. I threw it outside and contemplated running by the local Catholic Church for some holy water or something. I wasn’t taking any chances.
The same builders built my neighbors’ house. They had a similar experience. Their alarms also went off for no reason and keep beeping after it was disconnected. It must have a small built in power supply. She also bashed the thing with a broom.
It made me wonder about the reports you hear on the news about people dying in a fire because their smoke alarm had been disabled. I use to think, stupid people. Now, I wonder if they had the same model. I examined the alarm carefully and found out a few interesting things. It says, in small print on the inside of the battery cover, to replace the unit by 2005. You need to rotate the cover counter-clockwise to remove it from the ceiling. It contains radioactive material. Americium 241. Now both alarms are outside and I need to go get some new ones.
That was no way to start a day.
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