Hello, Mr. Firemen!

When our carbon monoxide (CO) sensor went off this afternoon, I picked up String Bean (who was out cold taking nap) and went outside. That is when I started laughing because I realized that the public service announcements tell you to get out, but do not really elaborate on what to do after you leave the house.

I tried to call Mr. Bean, but he didn't answer, so I did the next best thing. I called the 85 year old lady who lives upstairs. She laughed and agreed she didn't know what to do either. We decided we'd walk over to the Fire Department (at the end of our driveway basically) and ask them what to do.

Once we got there, they called it in and told us they'd meet us at the house. We walked back home and soon heard and saw the fire truck behind us. Really, Mr. Firemen? A fire truck is required for you to walk into my house with a hand held meter and check the CO levels?! And it takes 3 of you? Must be a slow day at the firehouse. (Interestingly, when they arrived, I got to hear my emergency call go over the radio...not that it was an emergency...nor did I call.)

Upon arrival at our house, one of the neighbor's sons (a 20-something) frantically came running out of the building telling us that the fire alarm was going off in the corner unit and no one was answering the door. About then I think he saw the huge fire truck following us. It is nice to know that the neighbor was concerned enough to bang on our door and then run out to try the windows to see if anyone was inside. Thanks, neighbor.

One fireman took the levels of CO with his handy meter. One looked talked to the 85 year old I brought along, and the third took our alarm off the wall. I asked him if he was impressed that I'd left a step stool for him to reach the alarm with. He was. Says that does not happen very often. (I'm here to serve!) He then lectured me on what a bad alarm we have. Well, Mr. Fireman, it did go off and alert us to a problem, so it can't be all bad.

Ends up our oven is emitting a large amount of CO whenever we open the door. Although the levels themselves were not very high in our condo when they arrived (our door had been wide open for a period of time prior to their arrival), the levels were off the charts when they opened the oven. A repairman will be visiting tomorrow and charging us an arm and a leg to look at it and possibly fix it.

I guess this is a good excuse to put off baking for Christmas for another day or two (depending upon when that repairman shows up tomorrow).

False Alarm

1:30 am. I woke up from a deep sleep because I heard a noise that penetrated our front door, our bedroom door, and could be heard over the hum of our fan. The fire alarm was going off. We looked in the hallway and neither saw smoke or smelled it. Since we are on the first floor of our building, we figured we'd be OK if we waited until the Fire Department showed up or we smelled smoke (besides we have a back door, ground floor exit).

We looked out the window and sitting in our backyard at one of the picnic tables was a man with a mustache. His mustache was glowing in the dark.

I would have thought I was dreaming all of this except a neighbor asked me what the deal was with the fire alarm in the middle of the night. Found out it was a malfunction in a sensor on one of the other floors.

My family should rest well knowing I hear the fire alarm in the middle of the night.

Response from the Fire Department

In response to my letter to the fire department due to the flooding of our street, I got this from our Fire Chief. All typos are his:

Thank you for taking the time to write to me regarding your experience last evening. I offer to you to following explanation regarding the XXXXX Fire Department responses caused by the rain storm last evening.

Last night the rain conditions started to become severe enough shortly after 6:00 pm that the XXXXX Fire Department began to run flood related calls at 6:16 pm. During any major flood condition the Fire Department is typical answering multiple calls. The number of these calls come into us so quickly that in many cases we are required to hold calls in abeyance because we do not have enough equipment and staffing to handle this volume of calls. Incidentally, it would not be cost effective to provide enough equipment and staffing to handle these storm since these type of storms do not occur on a regular basis.

In any severe storm Fire Station # 3 watches the water conditions very carefully. When the water rises to a certain level, the fire and ambulance crew leave the station and relocate to a dry position still within their district. They do this so that they are available to respond quickly to calls. During many storms they run call after call and are out of the station for a prolonged period of time and therefore would not be in the station during the storm.

Last evening after the call at 6:16 pm the crew from Station # 3 returned to the Fire Station and determined that the water was high enough that they need to relocate. They did that at approximately 6:45 pm. From that time until approximately 1:45 am this crew was out of their station handling storm related emergencies.

Rest assured that if anyone from XXXXX would have called 9-1-1 and requested assistance you would have received it. Regardless of how deep the water rises, we will always find a way to respond to an emergency. If the water rises to an extent that we believe that it is not safe for the resident (meaning that we cannot get to them) then we will order the evacuation of that property and we will assist all residents to safety.

I am sorry that you found no one at the fire station last evening to help you. Those crews were out on other calls. You raise a good point about the sign being placed on the doors. I will take your comment under consideration, however, you need to understand that if the crews are leaving the station on an emergency (this was the case at 6:16 pm last evening) they will not take the time to post a sign.

If I can answer any further questions, please feel free to contact me at my office number listed below.

So, I wrote back and said, "I don't think I communicated very well to you that the phone you have at your door was NOT working." Here was the response to that:

That phone rings into the station and if there was no one in the station it would not have been answered. Your comment about sometimes it rang and sometimes it didn’t bothers me.

Therefore, I have someone on the way to Fire Station # 3 at this moment to check on that telephone. If there is a problem with it I have every hope that it will be repaired in short order.

Thank you for taking the time to clarify this issue with the telephone. This is helpful.

Well, at least the Fire Department cares. The phone call that I left for the City Engineer has gone un-returned.