Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Fire Drills and Smoke Detector Madness

Let me start by saying that there was no fire. But the fire alarms went off shortly after 4:00 AM this morning and scared the bejeezus out of us. This is not the first time this has happened and there has never been a fire. They just like to go off every now and then and nobody can tell us why. When the batteries need changing they will "chirp" which always happens in the middle of the night and never during the day. But last night was a full blown fire drill. We tried changing out batteries and the fire detectors continued alternating between chirping and full blown alarm mode. I finally called the local fire department on a non-emergency call to ask for some advice. He recommended an electrician. Not at that hour of the night! Then we figured out how to get the housing cover off and disconnect them at the connection in the ceiling. But we still had chirping and then one of them started with a high pitch steady tone. So I ran down to the garage with a flashlight looking in the fuse box for which switch to throw when I hear..."Got it!"

We have 7 fire detectors hard wired in the house. One in every bedroom, two in the hallway outside the bedrooms and one downstairs near the kitchen. We ended up disabling 3 of them after almost a full hour of intermittent alarms and chirping. So now we have to do some shopping for replacements. I say rip every @#!%&*@ one of them out and let's start new. As far as bad nights go...I don't think anyone can top it.

I am leaving for Canada tomorrow morning...hopefully, I can get some sleep there! See you when I get back!

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