Update on the blaring alarm story from Thursday:
Remember the alarms that woke me up at 4:30 a.m. the other day?
Remember the alarms that woke me up at 4:30 a.m. the other day?
After I re-set the screeching fire alarms, I set off for
work then a class forty-five minutes from home.
I did not get back until 8:00 at night, thirteen hours after I shut and
locked the front door for the day. I was
exhausted but nervous that the damn alarms would go off again at any
second. I took a lightweight decorative
pillow and put it over my head while I slept, hoping it might muffle the jolt I
would experience if the hardwired smoke detectors went off again errantly
during the night.
I was relieved to discover that I had gotten a full,
uninterrupted night's sleep. I started
the car early, in case the battery had died in the sub-zero weather, and left
for work before 7:00 a.m. Around 3:00 my
phone indicated one voicemail. The
voicemail was my landlady, telling my not to worry, it was a faulty fire alarm,
and they disconnected the bad one for the time being.
Uh … I didn't know there had been a problem while I was gone.
Apparently sometime after I left the house, the alarms
tripped again, and the landlords had to enter my house to figure out the
problem. They had come in and unhooked
the faulty alarm, thus making sure the alarms would not go off except in the
case of an actual fire.
I felt awful knowing I left the house and the alarms were
blaring. And yet, I was also
relieved. I'm sorry that the owners and
my neighbors were inconvenienced and/or scared, but that's why I rent. Better their problem (ultimately) than mine... especially since I can't even read a fuse panel.
Now, THAT'S alarming.
Now, THAT'S alarming.
