a peek inside the fishbowl

The carbon monoxide detector went off at 5:35 this (Sunday) morning. To be clear, it’s a combination smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector and it came in a pair, one of which is installed in the upstairs hallway right outside our bedrooms and the other downstairs near the front door.

My first instinct is to ignore the alarm because it’s been known to go off when we’re cooking. When the kitchen is getting too hot and it goes off, you press the button and it says “HUSH MODE ACTIVATED.” It is, indeed, a talking smoke alarm. Apparently children are more likely to wake from a deep sleep if the emergency alarm sound is accompanied with spoken words. In this case, because it’s sold in Canada, it’s a bilingual smoke alarm. (I am not even kidding.)

Mark rolled out of bed to shut it off while I rolled over and tried my best to ignore it. He pressed the button but HUSH MODE could not be activated. And it wasn’t telling us the usual “FIRE! FEU!” message either. Our alarm was telling us it was detecting carbon monoxide. A deadly gas which I will forever remember – thanks largely to public health campaigns – as “THE SILENT KILLER.”

I heard Mark yell over the blaring alarm for us to get out of bed and get out of the house. The eldest was up. I went to get the youngest and she was still sleeping. I shook her awake (!) and we went downstairs. The eldest thankfully remembered something from her childhood and was actually waiting – with dog in arms – at the front door. I grabbed Piper’s collar and told everyone to go out the back and wait on the deck instead, then I popped back in quickly to get us some blankets, and grab my iPhone. I didn’t bother closing the back door because Mark was still in the house and I wanted to get some clean air in the house.

We have a few gas appliances, and Mark went around to check them all. (Although truth be told I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. A loose hose? A hissing sound?) We couldn’t smell anything (it is “THE SILENT KILLER” after all) and nobody was dizzy or vomiting or confused. (Ok, maybe I was confused, but that happens every morning before I’ve had a chance to have a coffee and my behaviour can’t fairly be considered a side effect of carbon monoxide poisoning.)

Then we had an important question to consider: should we call the fire department? After a short debate Mark called 911 as we’ve been taught. He stressed that we were all ok and sitting outside and that it was possibly a false alarm. Within 5 minutes the fire truck pulled up (thankfully, no horns were blaring) and three firefighters inspected our house. It was over in ten minutes and we had a zero reading. Mark apologized, but they were more than ok with us having called. (Because that’s what you’re supposed to do!) Turns out we have a sensitive alarm, that’s all.

Here’s the interesting part. Opening the windows and door turned out to be a mistake, because if there WAS carbon monoxide anywhere it would have dissipated and caused an incorrect reading. So heed this! If your carbon monoxide detector is going off, all you need to do is get out of the house and call 911. And don’t bother with the windows.