OUR DAILY DRIVEL

Fire Alarm Drill

Last night we were all sleeping soundly when at about 12:30 one of our fire alarms went off. We’ve had this happen in the past, usually due to a nearly dead battery or dust on the sensor. But when that has happened in the past, it is just a loud chirp every minute or so. This was a full-on alarm that activated every smoke alarm in our house (they are all wired together). I pulled the battery from the alarm in the master bedroom - no luck. I went into the playroom and pulled that battery - no luck. By now the kids were out of their beds and huddled in the kitchen, which happens to be the farthest location from fire alarm. I tried pushing the test button - nada. So I finally went into the garage and searched out the breaker that would kill the noise. Finally, we had some peace and quiet. But I was nervous about not having our smoke alarms active, so I got on the internet to figure out what to do to clear the problem. The internet was down because the alarms are on the same circuit as our homerun low-voltage utility panel in our coat closet. Luckily, we could get on the internet with our iPhones and I found the information I was looking for. It was the answer that I already knew, our alarms needs to be blown out with canned air and new batteries installed. I hadn’t done this annual maintenance in a few years, so it’s my own fault. This traumatic event has caused me to create an annual recurring event on my iPhone so I never forget again.