Every year at Christmas now I think about Christmas 8 years ago when I nearly died with my wife, child and in-laws.
I share this every year over on the Bird Site and will share it here now.
It was Christmas Eve. 9 year old was just 1. We were staying at my in-laws who had an acreage just outside Red Deer at the time. We went to bed a bit late but the night was good. 1 year old wasn’t up too much.
Around 4AM or so an alarm starts blaring, waking us up.
My in-laws smoke alarm was notoriously sensitive. It would go off every second time you made toast. So this wasn’t unusual. In my sleepy haze I assumed someone was making early morning toast and set off the smoke alarm again.
So I stumble out of the room, grab a towel and start waving it at the smoke alarm like an idiot. It takes me a moment to register that we’re sleeping in the basement. Why would the alarm go off here for toast?
I look closer at the alarm. Is it even going off?
I climb on a chair and look closer at it. I pull it right off the ceiling and hold it in my hand. It’s not going off. What the hell is making that noise? I can’t locate it.
My wife heads upstairs to get her parents to figure this out.
My father-in-law comes down and seems confused. We search around. In the corner there’s a white rectangular box plugged into the wall. It looks like it’s 30 years old. All the markings are worn off. Father-in-law unplugs it & it immediately shuts off.
“What’s that?”
“Carbon monoxide detector.”
He plugs it back in and it doesn’t turn back on. “So what does that mean?”
We all stare at it for what seems like a long time. The alarm isn’t restarting. My wife, the only one with brains, “Shouldn’t we leave?”
Me, a god damn idiot, “Look how old it is. Did it malfunction?”
My wife, again, the only smart one, “I’m leaving with the baby.”
That knocked the stupidity out of me. Where was the baby? He was still sleeping. “Why did the baby sleep through that alarm?”
We get the baby out. Don’t worry, baby was fine. He was just tired. It was -30 outside that night. We haul him out in his sleep sack, turn on the car, and sit inside with him while we wait for the fire truck.
The Red Deer County Volunteer Fire Department came rolling in early that Christmas morning. Left their families in the middle of the night. Determined it wasn’t a fire. Called the gas guy. Poor guy went to bed at 2AM after wrapping presents for his kids all night.
I can’t remember exactly what went wrong but they’d been having trouble with the furnace all year. It kept shutting off. Later we found out poplar fuzz was clogging the intake vent but that wasn’t the whole thing.
Every year I think about that one CO detector. Apparently the only one my father-in-law had in the house. Super old. Never checked.
Had it not been for that, we all might’ve died in our sleep Christmas morning 8 years ago. Myself, my wife, my son, and my in-laws.
Here’s the crazier part. Remember how my wife had to go upstairs to get her parents? That’s because the CO alarm in the basement wasn’t loud enough to wake them up in their room with the door closed.
No one slept in the basement except us when we came to visit.
So if that furnace malfunction had happened ‘any’ other night but Christmas Eve, they might have died in their sleep having never heard the alarm.
I also think about the volunteer fire department and the gas guy (think it was ATCO) leaving their house at 4 or 5AM Christmas morning to come help us out. Community workers are on call again tonight and every night.
Anyways, I have like 5 CO detectors in my house now. My in-laws do too. We’re all good. Lived through Christmas and many Christmases since.
So if I may ‘dad’ you all for a minute: Check your smoke alarms and your CO alarms. Have one at every level.
Also, if you’re stupid like me, marry someone with brains and listen to the damn alarm immediately.
Merry Christmas and hug your loved ones!
@wheatnoil And check your outdoor furnace vents and make sure they are free from snow and ice.
A very good lesson, thanks for sharing!
I invite my followers to read the whole thread.
A combined CO/smoke sensor now can be found for less than $50, a lot cheaper than a coffin…
@unsaturated @olavf @wheatnoil
Here’s an article from Consumer Reports. It’s important to choose the right kind of heat pump for your climate, and have it installed by someone who knows what they’re doing. For very cold climates, ground-source heat pumps work great too, but are more expensive. Most people can use air-source heat pumps, though.
Well, yes, heat pumps are great and all but:
1) Approx 2010, an apartment bldg near where I worked got filled w CO, despite being all electric, bc something involving a tunnel under the building (!). State mandates CO detectors, everyone got out fine.
2) I had an all electric apartment in what I thought was an all electric bldg. I had lived there more than 20 years bf I discovered the first floor had gas heat.
Get a CO detector anyway.
@wheatnoil earlier this year our furnace died in winter. We went down and checked it out and the pilot light was out. We relit it and it worked again for a while but then shut off.
It was a Saturday and we managed to get a guy out. He did some work and got it up and running...until it shut off overnight. We couldn't get it to stay on, and we couldn't get anyone out until Monday.
Monday a new guy came and it turns out our furnace was shutting off due to a safety failsafe- the first guy hadn't actually checked and just reset it. They had to disable our furnace until they could get a new one in and installed because it was already leaking detectable levels of CO in the basement. So thank God our furnace wouldnt turn back on Sunday or we might have died!!
Stupidly, we didn't even have CO detectors until then. Always have tested, working detectors!!
@wheatnoil We had a 15yo smoke detector age-out and start false-alarming on us a few weeks ago. Discovered all the wired smoke detectors were of a brand that got bought by Kidde, and the old detectors weren't manufactured any more; I could try my luck with a compatibility kit replacing all the old detectors, but that seemed like an unbelievable hassle that would just come back again in a decade.
So I replaced them all with Nest Protect detectors that combine Smoke and carbon monoxide. Have them in every bedroom, and hallway, and the basement besides. When MIL set one off making bacon, every detector in the house told us where the food was happening. Couldn't be happier.
(Disclaimer: I work for Google, who owns the Nest brand. This is my personal opinion and choice on this product.)
@wheatnoil that is one of the craziest CO stories i've ever heard, and i'm glad you're still here to tell it
my sister was hospitalized with CO toxicity when i was 7 years old, and i will never forget it. my father learned never to monkey around with the furnace after that.
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