The reason I say that is because I got some terrible news yesterday. A former colleague lost her husband and one year old son in a house fire yesterday.
I was in complete shock when I found out. My former colleague lived in what used to be a farmhouse in a small village here in the Netherlands. Some time during the night a fire started. She was able to escape along with her husband and their four year old daughter. The husband then returned to the house to try to save their one year old boy, and never made it back out. The police and fire department are investigating the cause of the fire, but my guess would be faulty wiring or something like that, since this was quite an old house. So people, please make sure your smoke alarms are in working order, and practice leaving the house in case of an emergency.
What saddens me incredibly is the fact that this was the nicest family you could ever meet. My colleague was in the Worker’s Council at my former employer, and when some of us (nineteen people to be exact) received the news that we would be fired due to a reorganization, she and her colleagues in the Worker’s Council did everything they humanly could to prevent our being let go (Unsuccessfully, unfortunately, but almost all of us have found work again, and thanks to the Worker’s Council we got a terrific severance package). Her husband was also a really nice guy, and they were a genuinely happy family, with two kids, lots of pets, and a lot of love. I cannot begin to imagine the feelings she must be going through right now. I know if I was in the same situation (I am also married with two kids), I would also go back into the burning house to save my child. Just imagining the whole situation yesterday left me in tears, and most of all angry.
How can it be that so many genuinely evil people live long and prosperous lives, while tragedies like this happen to good families? It is enough to make one despair and lose faith. I know I won’t lose faith, because all of her friends and colleagues have to be strong for her now, but the worst part is the knowledge that there is absolutely nothing I can do to bring back her husband and child! I tried to imagine how my world would be shattered if I lost my wife and a child in a fire, so please let me say it again:
For God’s sake: CHECK YOUR SMOKE ALARMS and plan ahead for emergencies like this.
My smoke alarm is usually disconnected (battery removed) because it tends to go off whenever I cook. Rather than replace the battery before every meal, I just yank it out whenever it goes off, and then (because I need to get up on a ladder again) I usually leave the battery on a shelf about three feet from the smoke alarm, where, of course, it’s totally useless.
Right now, it’s been disconected for I think the last three or four weeks. I’m not proud of this, but I can’t see myself turning the thing off at least several times a week, either.
Pseudotriton ruber ruber, I have a suggestion. Why not install a new smoke alarm, one that won’t be quite so sensitive? They’re very inexpensive and probably not too hard to install. It’s definitely worth it.
I’m so glad that in newer apartments and houses, the alarms are often wired into the electricity so that when the battery goes low, you get an annoyingly intermittent but random beep that drives you batty until you change the battery.
Mine used to do this also. I once went off when I was boiling a kettle for tea! Luckily, for me it was a matter of throing a braeker in the fusebox that was in the kitchen, so it was easy enough to make it stop. Nonetheless, I hated it for going off all the time.
I had my landlord replace it. Sometimes the sensor diode doo-hick degrade with age making the smoke alarm either ultra-sensitive or not-sensitive-enough. Now I have no problem and the alarm is in the same spot.
It’s easy enough to get a new, battery operated one and move it to a less mitcheny location.
Actually, that’s a good idea. My fuse box is right next to the smoke alarm.
Oh, wait. The smoke alarm is not on the electric system–that’s why I have to remove the battery. Now I’m twice as confused. They make smoke alarms that run on the electric system in your house? But if there’s a fire, wouldn’t the system not necessarily function?
pseudotriton ruber ruber
Get a 2nd smoke alarm and place it somewhere farther away from where you cook. Use it as a replacement for the one you have disconnected.
We religiously test and check every smoke alarm in our house every 3 months. We also have a CO (Carbon Monoxide) monitor in the basement as well.
I’m Deaf & mine has a light on it. You can buy one that is wired to your house wiring for the Deaf too. They output at something like 85-90db., which is enough to wake the Deaf. Some even have vibrators. http://www.hearmore.com/Scripts/prodlist.asp?idCategory=17
MYcroft, I’ve been meaning to change my alarm but have been letting the task slide. Thank you for reminding me, and rest assured that several of us have heeded you and got them checked/changed I’m sorry about your friends.
Might be more useful in the bedroom, so you’re sure to hear it. We bought one about 4 years ago, when the chimney blew off our house during a windstorm. The people who came to fix it said that because of the missing chimney, the furnace was venting into the house, and by the way did we have headaches or anything because the furnace might be leaking CO :eek:. I bought one that very evening. Wasn’t a problem as it happens (unlike about 20 years earlier, when I was living in an apartment that almost certainly had a faulty furnace - months-long fatigue resolved when we turned off the furnace; we didn’t figure that one out until 10 years after the fact).
Minor vent on the topic of smoke detectors: our house was wired for a security system by the prior owners. There are smoke detectors that are part of the central system. There is no frickin’ TEST button on them. The former owners told us they’d light a match nearby to generate smoke to test them. I’m sensitive to loud noises and these are on 9-foot ceilings, which means that to test them, I’d have to get on a ladder and create a flame. Then I’d have to somehow avoid: Jumping in terror at the sudden loud noise, falling to the floor, breaking a bone or three, dropping the flame, and setting fire to the house. Obviously we have no clue whether they work. Whatinhell were the designers of that system THINKING of?
So yeah - check those smoke detectors. And don’t forget to vacuum them out occasionally - at our last house, the thing went off in the middle of the night once, causing us to dial 911. Turned out to be a spiderweb. :smack: Fortunately the firemen chose to be amused :o
Good thread, Mycroft. I started an MPSIMS thread a couple of days ago, prompted by my apartment building starting on fire last week. My landlady’s pilot light malfunctioned and started a fire. (She later told me that the only thing that woke her up was her cats jumping on her chest, and that her smoke detector didn’t start going off till after the room was so full of smoke that she was dizzy.) My smoke alarm hadn’t gone off either – and it was pretty darn smoky in my apartment (mine being directly above my landlady’s).
It was a scary experience – even though the fire was contained quickly, it could have been MUCH worse. If I hadn’t woken up from the smell or if my landlady’s cats hadn’t woken her up, who knows what could have happened. I had a discussion with her the next day in which I told her that she’d better have the smoke alarms replaced in the whole building. She totally agreed and they’ve started replacing them already this week.
It was a scary lesson to learn, but it really drove the point home. Make sure your smoke alarm works and that it’s always got fresh batteries. It’s one of those things that seems more a hassle than a help, but after that experience last week, I’ve become a believer.
Technology has changed rapidly in recent years regarding smoke detectors.
Current availability includes hardwire (house power/fusebox supplied) with and without battery backup, and standalone battery only detectors. Some are made with hush buttons for kitchen applications. (Why not use a fan?)
Two types exist: photoelectric which responds best to thicker smoke, and ionization which responds to tiny smoke particles. Either way, you’re protected.
Beyond that, if detectors are in excess of 10 years old, replace them, owing to sensitivity drift. Even with good batteries, they may not be protecting you. BTW, pushing the test button only tests the sounder circuit. Use a punk stick, incense, cigarette, or canned smoke detector test aerosol to verify smoke sensing operation.
Last option is a 10 year lithium battery powered detector. No battery to replace, and at the end of 10 years you replace the entire detector, in accord with NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) recommendations.
"No battery to replace, and at the end of 10 years you replace the entire detector, "
What do you do with the old detector? Mine seem to need to be changed once a year cause they start going off by themselves even with a new battery.
Still, around these parts the odds that something may happen is about 2 incidents/15,500people per year. Even then those two were vacant vacation homes.
Yesterday I got an email from my former colleague explaining how everything transpired. She says she woke up at about 1 AM from a strong smell of smoke in their bedroom, and immediately saw what appeared to be a small fire in one of the upper corners of their bedroom. She slept on the ground floor with her husband and their daughter, while the one year old slept on the second floor. She and her daughter immediately went outside, while her husband went upstairs to get the baby. She thought there was plenty of time to get everyone out of the house at this point. After her husband didn’t return in a few minutes she went back into the house but only got as far as the foot of the stairs which were full of smoke at that point. After calling her husband several times and hearing no answer she went back outside to wait for the fire department to arrive. She says it took no longer than ten minutes for them to show up.
Even so, the whole house burnt down and she and her daughter were left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. According to the fire department her husband and her son were most likely dead due to smoke inhalation before the fire even reached them. According to her, this was at the most five minutes after she first noticed the fire (which seemed small at the time). So as you can see people, even a small fire can be very dangerous, and you will probably have no more than five minutes to get out of the house, especially if you sleep on an upper floor, where the smoke will tend to accumulate. And if you ask any firefighter they will tell you that smoke is usually much more dangerous than the actual fire.
Fire volume grows at a rate of double to triple in volume every 90 seconds.
We show training videos to new members of test chambers with a discarded cigarette in a wastecan or stuck in a couch cushion, and in a room with ordinary furnishings, the wisps of smoke will rapidly progress to a full-blown fire with ceiling temperatures exceeding 1000°F and smoke banked down to floor level, all in less than 5 minutes.
