A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall well... unfortunately its that time again!

Ok... before you start thinking you don't have to do anything I tell you to do, ask Cindy about the time I had to MAKE her do it... and what happened (or didn't happen) later...

So right now ...not in a little while... RIGHT NOW, get out of your chair and PLEASE go test your smoke alarms. (yes, I did)

Please... for me. I never ask for much here, but I am asking all of you to do this favor for me. Two minutes and you'll be back in your chair.
(If I can't bully you into it... I'll shame you until you do! )

It's part of my job to keep you from finding out how bad it hurts to burn... I've been there and I know...

Trust me... you will sleep better tonight knowing you made a grumpy ol' gnome happy.

Merme

Thanks you not so grumpy gnome--- I did't do it cause I can't do ladders but got my oldest gs to do it and all is well at our house... we usually do it same time we change time ... but since they change that lately now is a good time too!
Nana

You got a little grin out of me. It doesn't matter who pushes the button as long as it beeps!
I hope Cindy will tell her story later. There is a reason why I get on my soapbox every six months.. I think I may have missed a couple rants in the last year or so... I got sidetracked or something

checked all 5 of Mine they are A-OK

thanks for the reminder

Don't forget to check the one in the garage everyone

The Fire Department wants me to install one in my stairwell... I asked how I'm supposed to get up 30' to install, change batteries, test, etc; they said it wasn't their problem lol...

Bill...it's a good thing I'm over 2,000 miles away from you right now, or you would spank me.
(...well...that might not be so bad....)

...anyway....I don't even have a smoke alarm now.
So.....there's no battery to check!

Cindy, shame on you -----you should get one ASAP---


Bill, I cannot check mine--as they are wired into the electrical system some how, and so I guess there has to be some kind of back up system ?/ There is one in every bedroom at the doorway---but no others----I will have to check about the basement.

we did have a carbon monoxide detector but it decided to short out & has yet to be replaced.

But thanks for making me go check & see what was what......

I have one.....



...I just haven't installed it yet.

The prior one was beaten to death by a broom because it wouldn't shut up one day when I was "cooking".
(...almost a year ago...)
So...I have at least purchased a new one...

I will put the battery in it tomorrow and set it somewhere convenient so when it goes off I can just deal with it without having to beat it to death with a broom. The ceiling is a bad place to put those things...I can't reach them to make them shut up.

So it died a painful death, HUH??/ well I get that---
for me when there is smoke from the stove (how does it get there anyway???? ) and they go off I just go doen & flip a switch and off the go!!!--Bad part is remembering to go back down & flip the switch back on----

I am so glad to hear that you DO have one though---I can now go to sleep tonight & not worry--too too much.

Wild Willy - you are the best!!!

Yep...his "test your smoke alarm" reminder saved me back in 2005, or 2004...I don't remember now.
But, it was way weird because I had just joined the forum not long before the "reminder"...and I got up right then and put the battery back in the smoke alarm (I had taken it out because it wouldn't shut up when I was "cooking" one day...)
Anyway....that night...in the middle of the night...the freakin' thing goes off.
I got out of bed to beat it to death with the broom but when i turned the light on I could see a trail of weird bluish-colored smoke in the room...electrical somethingorother gone awry.

So...thanks, Bill ...and......

...my smoke alarm is professionally installed as of 9:30 this morning, on the ceiling where it belongs.



CindyFaye

YEA Cindy!!!

Yerp----I too am glad that your smoke alarm is installed and working---

Me Too!

Firemen get mad at you when you install the smoke detector on the walls :x...

They do?? how would YOU know???

Our heater burnt out completely last year, and we had to have them out here due to 'smells' emanating from the vents; they looked at all of the smoke detectors in the house and scolded us because the one downstairs and one in my bedroom are mounted on the walls (within an inch of the ceiling); and said that even though the manufacturer says it's ok that it's not ideal, blah blah blah... :x...

We had to take ours down a long time ago because it was positioned in the hallway, not necessarily a bad place since it's right outside the bedrooms, but the bathroom is also right there and every time someone takes a shower the steam sets it off. We have 2 teenagers in the house, there are a lot of showers happening. We do have one in the basement by the girls room though.

Bill, thanks for the reminder.

I tested each and all 5 smoke alarms worked properly.

I only got to test the one in Trey's room before my surgery last Friday; and I'm still bed ridden (well, futon ridden lol) but plan to test the rest when I'm able to walk...

How are you feeling, James?

Wishing I had more for the pain than what they gave me... I can't really move around or the stitches make my feet ache, so I have to basically sit here and do nothing :/

Please go check each of your smoke alarms!


Thank you! :wink:

All's well here, Bill!

Are you ******** me?
Do smoke alarms go off when your hnd iis on fire?

ooops...i thought it wouldd bleep that word.
i'll tey to fixit.

it is obvioussly my right hand that had a fire accident.

I know I've told this story before, but it bears repeating in Bill's Smoke Alarm Thread again...

Maxi was 3 months old and asleep w/ me in the back bedroom of our apartment in Portland, in the room behind the kitchen. I smelled smoke in my sleep but as it became a part of my dream, I didn't respond to it.

Then suddenly, I jolted awake, hearing my husband screaming my name to wake up and get the baby out of the building because our kitchen was on fire!

I sat up directly into a huge cloud of thick smoke!

I grabbed Maxi out of his very low basinette, and crouched over, ran to the door and down the back stairway to the rear exit of our building. I was going so fast, I tripped & grabbed the handrail to prevent a fall but wrenched my back badly. I got to the exit door & yanked it open but the landlord had made a huge pile of remodeling debris and snow -- about 6 feet high by 20 feet long -- blocking our exit. I stood there wondering if I could safely climb that mountain in my nightie in bare feet, holding the baby while legally blind? I was pretty sure I could if it meant saving Maxi!

But just then, my downstairs neighbor who was NEVER home at night opened his back door and yelled "Run this way! There is no fire here yet!" And so I dashed through his apartment and out through the front door to find my husband waiting in the courtyard in a terrible panic thinking the baby and I were trapped behind the fire.

As it turned out, faulty wiring in the kitchen had started the fire & Edward had fallen asleep in his chair in the living room. If he hadn't woken up so quickly and bellowed so loudly & consistently for me, it would have been a tragedy.

Not one single alarm in our building was working properly. They were ALL cutrate and defective!

Where I live now we have inside sprinklers in each room. And we have high end smoke alarms that are all wired together with a master alarm. If anything goes wrong with one of them, the master alarm goes off in a most unusual way and then sets off all the rest! It is an unforgetable noise.

But I wouldn't want to live through another night like that one when Maxi was in his infancy. His dad had to go to Rite Aid at 7 AM and buy bottles & an electric pot to boil water & formula because everything of Maxi's was lost in the fire and the wee lad was hungry. The Red Cross put us up in a room & gave us a voucher to eat for one week while we found a new place.

As bad as it was, though, it could have been much worse!

All that week we looked for apartments, we had one blizzard after another. One would stay in the room w/ the baby & the other would go look. Then we'd all go out for meals. Dad would put baby in the kangaroo carrier under his great coat and lead the way & I would follow behind, holding onto Edward's belt so I wouldn't get lost.

Starting over with nothing was tough but not tougher than starting over badly burned or dead.

Make Bill happy and follow his good advice!

Merme, Cindy--those are very scary stories. Gald that everyone is well though. Once again I will say that mine are wired into teh electrical system. I must say I have no idea how they work if the power goes off though. DEH is asleep right now, or I would speak to him. I weill be talking to him tomorrow to be sure.

try to replyre but bandage changed and allmy fingers are tapled tolgthnedter bandfage to pmy wrist.
tty tom orrfow

Take care Cindy---I will be thinking of you

FH says if we have no power we have no fire alarms--but that he is not too worried

As it is his job to worry about such things I guess I will not worry either.

Carol my hardwired alarms have battery backup in case of power failure. Some even have battery operated lights to show you the way out when the power goes out. You should consider getting at least one battery alarm just in case because what if you have a wire failure fire which shuts off your alarms?

well I thought of that--but apparently you do not know my husband---he says there is no need to worry so there is no need to worry---but there are all kinds of windows in my bed room and we are on the ground floor--

Just buy a normal one and put it up..some even are peel and stick.

I'm with Tam on this one, Carol. Get at least one peel & stick and put it by your bedroom.

You may be on the ground floor with a million windows, but what exactly, are you expecting to wake you up in the middle of the night if there is a fire and ALL your alarms are down?

For the life & death safety of you both, don't let him "win" this one. If you are asleep and no alarm sounds, the smoke itself can make you go unconcious and then you really will have no chance to use those windows on the ground floor.

on the weekend we had friends over to help with the house and they wired some in for us.

yep--mine are wired in also..apparently this is the newest thing....

In my opinion, it should be ILLEGAL to sell wired smoke alarms which do not have internal battery backup. Hard wires without battery backup give people a false sense of security they truly do not have. It is utterly madness to rely on electricity to keep you alive in situations where the electricity can fail.

Hard wired alarms are not the least bit new.... we've been using that kind for 15 years.

Hard wired alarms w/out battery backup are merely the latest way to smoke and fry a family.