Tired, weary, and bedraggled this mama drags herself to the blog tonight. I actually went to bed a bit earlier last night--usually a good sign that disaster is ready to strike!
Around 2am this morning, I shot out of bed to the sound of SEVEN screeching smoke detectors in our house. They *BEEPED* two or three times, then all was silent (including the children who slept soundly through the whole ordeal--ironically just a few hours after I watched a news clip sent by my mother-in-law regarding the alarming fact that children usually sleep through fire alarms). Standing in the middle of our room, the house now eerily silent, heart thumping, husband off in a foreign land (again Murphy's law strikes), I pondered what to do. Finally, I figure since the detectors are quiet and I don't smell smoke, I'll check the house. House checked out fine, so did the still sleeping children. Now what? I knew Ryan should be sleeping and I hated to wake him out of the precious little sleep he's been getting at the NCO Academy in Germany; but I figured my folks in Indiana, four hours behind us might still be up.
Well, no such luck, but Mom still answered pretty alertly anyway--thank the Lord for mothers! Mom and Dad suggested I still call the fire department. Sigh. I could just hear the, "Ma'am, you should evacuate the house immediately and wait for the fire department to arrive with sirens wailing through the night." Fortunately, though the dispatcher did want to know if I had seven 9-volt batteries on hand and if I was prepared to install them (HA!), he didn't require me to get the kids out of bed into the rain and wait for the neighbors to peek their head out the bedroom windows wondering which neighbor was foolish enough to burn a pot roast at that time of the night? Anyway, he decided it was probably a battery issue and to take care of it in the morning.
Morning came, I tested the alarm at breakfast and noted for the kids that they had slept through such an ear-ringing performance last night (wide-eyed, they kept eating). All seemed good there. I posted a note to our personal Fire Chief Coach--thanks Coach!:) For some reason in Lajes the phone number for the fire department (other than 911) is the best kept secret--must be national security or something--otherwise I could have called the guys this morning and straightened the whole thing out. No such luck. While waiting for Chief Coach to email back, I chatted with neighbors and friends who thought Maintenance might have the answer.
So, Maintenance was called on the scene. And of course, during nap time. Fortunately, once out, my kids seem to sleep like rocks (thank you, Daddy!!!:), so the noise of the maintenance worker didn't bother them. (However, check out my brother-in-law's October post, *chirp* for a hilarious clip on children vs. adults and the infamous smoke detector: http://mennodaddy.blogspot.com/2004/07/tests-that-started-it-all.html.) The very nice Portuguese gentleman seemed to convey that all was well with the detectors, but that maybe the wattage of the Island and the American-made detectors were not quite compatible and maybe that's what made them take a weird turn in the middle of the morning.
I'm beginning to wonder if I dreamed it all. Oh well, it's the stuff good posts are made from, right?
p.s. Chief Coach did get back to me and directed me to his guru on fire prevention, so I'll have to try that tomorrow. Maybe he'll have me feed a bit of egg to the silly things and they'll be happy from here on out????:)
2 comments:
The plight of smoke detectors began when our generation (the tail end of the Baby Boomers) decided we should have technology to protect our kids. (They came out just before the "Baby On Board" yellow signs for our car windows, which we thought would cause the lunatics that somehow received a driver’s license to be more careful around us.)Little did we realize that with the technology come annoyances like “low batteries” and “power spikes.”
It is most likely a power surge or spike that caused this incident. Since so many or all of them did it at once. It might be worth it to use a piece of paper that was lit and then blown out so as to smolder and test to see if the sensors are still working. (We often trust the “push here to test buttons” a little too much.)
Something else they are working on is to replace the “beep” with a recording of the parents yelling to wake up. Seems kids will hear their parent’s voices and react more than the ear piercing noise of the beep.
Thanks for taking time in your exhaustion to post.
You know, we had the same problem. They are wired together so they all go off and sometimes even a dusty smoke alarm will set them all off. SO, we changed batteries in them all and we also vacuumed them out.
The little girl did wake up, but not the boy. He slept through it all.
I was wanting to call the fire department, but DH really didn't want to. So... we checked all walls feeling all over them and we checked around anything that could even remotely start a fire, and we checked the furnace etc.
I also get concerned because our duplex neighbor is a smoker.
What a pain.
Sorry you were there alone when it happened!
I am glad that you all had a good time on Harvest Day!
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