Never ignore a smoke alarm.

lasermonkey

Last night was quite interesting.

I was watching a programme about plane crashes and became aware of a distant beeping sound. It must have been going on for some time and I suppose I must have thought it was an incidental noise, but after the programme cut back to a talking head and the beeping persisted, I thought I had better investigate.

I live in an old building, converted into flats and maisonettes. It was hard to tell where the sound was coming from, but was definitely louder upstairs and you could hear it quite loudly outside. The Mrs and I are the freeholders for the entire building and many of the leaseholders have given us keys, "just in case". One of the upstairs tenants has just moved out. We had heard her in the flat earlier on in the day, so we wondered if she might have possibly done something to set it off. We gave her a call and she asked us to let ourselves in to have a look.

Having checked the door handle for any signs of heat, we opened the door and were confronted with thick, acrid smoke. I had taken a fire extinguisher with me, just in case, but there was no way I was going in there! We closed the door, alerted the other upstairs neighbour who hadn't heard a thing, as he had taken his hearing aid out, called 999 and legged it.

The fire brigade were there within minutes and it would seem that when the lady upstairs had left, she had given the cooker hob one last clean and had inadvertently turned on one of the rings. This had been on for hours and had got so hot, the element burnt through the housing and landed on something flammable. When the fire brigade arrived it had just started to flame.

Luckily the damage was only minimal and no one was hurt, but if we had gone out for the evening, as we had planned, we may have come home to no house and a dead neighbour.

So, as the title says, if you hear anything that sounds remotely like a smoke alarm, don't ignore it!

Gassage

Yuop, I'd never know my bacon was cooked if it wasn't for the smoke alarm....

PolarityMan

Sounds like it could have been much worse if you hadn't been so conscientious. I think you can ligitimitaly claim you saved they day there!

Wow awarded for your efforts

Sambostar

Oh I donno. sometimes you are better off without a neighbour.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Good work LaserMonkey.

MatthewShreddery

Can't believe in this day an age that a hob can just be left on like this. So dangerous. All cookers should have some kind of sensor that can switch the thing off if there is nothing cooking on it.

Well done for your quick thinking.

holnrew

I'm all worried now about the flat downstairs catching fire and spreading up here and burning my pets

ICBM

A long time ago when I lived in a flat in the city, we woke up one morning to a faint trace of smoke coming through the floorboards from the flat below. No answer to a very hard knock on the door, and when I opened the letterbox to shout through it, thick smoke poured out so I called the fire brigade immediately.

It turned out the chap had come in somewhat the worse for wear in the small hours, and put a 'boil in the bag' thing in a saucepan on the hob, then fallen sound asleep. A few hours later and the water had all gone, so the contents then started to carbonise and produce an astonishing amount of noxious smoke, and was also just about at the point of flames. He woke up when the firemen dragged him out though!

The other important lesson from that day is that a single lock on a wooden door frame is as good as useless - the fire officer just raised his leg and applied a large boot to the door and it was like it wasn't locked at all...

TinLip

My missus uses smoke alarms as a food timer.

mike_l

TinLip said:

My missus uses smoke alarms as a food timer.

I use it to know when the soup's ready.

Emp_Fab

One of the most amazing guitarists I ever saw live, a chap named Titch Gwilym (played with The Superclarks and probably others) sadly died in a fire at a friends house in Cardiff many years ago.  Such incredible talent - a real inspiration to me.  His version of Purple Rain was mindblowing.  He would often play a Hendrix-esque version of the National Anthem at the Arms Park before Welsh International games and HTV or BBC Wales used it to close the evening's broadcasting before TV went 24h.  Rest in Loud man... fuck peace ! 

UnclePsychosis

@icbm don't suppose you lived at the Newington end of the meadows? I used to work with a guy who once did exactly as you describe...

ICBM

UnclePsychosis said:

@icbm don't suppose you lived at the Newington end of the meadows? I used to work with a guy who once did exactly as you describe…

No, it was in Stockbridge. Unless it was the same guy when he lived in a different flat! His name was Joe with a Polish surname if I remember right.

UnclePsychosis

Nah, that's not him. That would have been a great small world moment!

Phil_aka_Pip

Two houses ago, I had the place rewired and the sparky insisted on putting smoke alarms in the hall and at the top of the landing. The one in the hall would go off without fail when I fried an egg or made toast. A large capacitor in my Hammond organ blew up making so much smoke I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Did the smoke alarm go off? Did it heck. Complete waste of time & money.

imalone

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Two houses ago, I had the place rewired and the sparky insisted on putting smoke alarms in the hall and at the top of the landing.

This'll be because there are rules now about installing enough smoke alarms if you're have significant wiring work done. (At least there are in NI, suspect England will be the same.)

lasermonkey, glad everyone's okay!