Mononxide de Carbon

Really? Two 9-1-1 calls in one years? Last night, well 2:30 this morning, K woke me up. The carbon monoxide detectors in our home were going off. I went to Olivia's room and picked her up. The alarm woke her up too. After stopping the alarms, K called 9-1-1 to report the alarm and ask what we should do. After all, carbon monoxide is odorless and can't be seen.

They sent a fire truck with 3 firemen over to check the whole house. There were no traces of CO2 anywhere. They checked the stove, hot water tank and anything else they could think of. They stayed while K changed the batteries in all the alarms and made sure they weren't going off again before they left. They were really nice and super helpful. They even had batteries to give us in case we didn't have some. Lucky for us K is prepared and has a box full of new batteries downstairs.

The best part of the night was Olivia's expression when they firemen walked in the front door. Just think "It's 2:00 am, what the heck are you doing here?" The worst part was that our alarms are bilingual. Our alarm beeps three times then says "Carbon Monoxide, Monoxide de Carbon" After a few times it gets a bit annoying. It even had the firemen laughing.

So please make sure you check your alarms regularly. They should be vacuumed and batteries changed every time you change the clocks. That's how we got our fancy bilingual ones. K went to change the batteries and found that the ones the builder puts in are cheap and don't have a battery backup. They are all wired. Which means if the power should ever go out, there would be no back up. They were a bit more expensive, but really can you put a price on your life and the life of the people in your home?

P.S.

I really wanted to ask the firemen to take a picture with Olivia for this post and for her scrapbook, but I just couldn't do it, to shy.