I got a frantic call from my wife at lunchtime. She was in our basement and one of my gadgets was beeping. That gadget was this Explosive Gas / Carbon Monoxide detector from Kidde.
Time to get out of the house and call 911. Three minutes later, some of Whitefish Bay's finest are in my basement. Turns out the furnace was spewing out high levels of Carbon Monoxide, a deadly, colorless and odorless gas. They killed the furnace and began airing out my now, very cold house.
Had we not had that CO detector, this story could have ended very differently, especially had it occurred while we slept. This sort of thing doesn't just happen to the downtrodden, heating their homes improperly. It even happens to Marquette fans with properly maintained furnaces.
The moral of this story is: Get a CO detector, for crying out loud. They're a cheap $20 of life insurance. -- And if you have one already, give it a test after you read this. We'll all sleep better if you do.
Thanks for your time. I apologize for this non-sequitur, but we at Cracked Sidewalks need to keep all our fans safe!
Glad everyone is ok...we've had one in our house for many years. Smart investment and a cheap one.
ReplyDeleteglad all is well in the Hilltopper household
ReplyDeleteNo apologies necessary. In the Midwest, in this time of year, it's a great reminder.
ReplyDeleteSame thing happened to me when I lived in Chicago. I had installed our carbon monoxide detector on a Sunday afternoon and it went off that night.
ReplyDeleteA technician from Con Edison came to our house and shut down our furnace. Given the readings, he said me and my then-pregnant wife would have been dead in the morning. Buy one and install it. Don't wait.