Check Your Smoke Detectors...We had a scare yesterday!

This is a reminder to check your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors TODAY. Change the batteries. We have both on both levels with batteries but after the scare we had a little while ago, I thought I'd better send a reminder out to our friends and family. I think I am going to pick up a few more too to be extra safe.

We were gone yesterday afternoon for one of our daughter's basketball games. When we came home, my daughter tried to turn her cable box on to watch tv and it wouldn't turn on. I told her to unplug it, wait a minute, and plug it back in to reset it. She's back within 20 seconds, telling me there is something wet and black on her plug. I go look - the plate was black where it had been plugged in and the plug itself is very hot. I put my hand in front of the plate and feel heat radiating off of it like a heater. I feel the wall around it and it is HOT from the electrical outlet to about 6-8 inches of wall above it. Damn! I call our local fire department and explain what I see and feel. He says he is right down the road and will come take a look. I'm scared but trying not to show it with the kids because they're all worried, especially my oldest who gets anxiety ridden over everything.

He arrives within two minutes and sees/feels the same thing I did so he unscrews the plate and sees black wires, burn marks, and says it is still arcing!! It shouldn't have been doing that - the circuit should have flipped before it got that bad. It didn't. Damn again! He puts his tester on it and we start flicking off circuits to find the right one. We find it and get it turned off so it doesn't start a fire in our wall. It shuts off the wall into the bedroom next door - my son's one big fish is going to freeze. I hope the pet store is open tomorrow because I am going to see if they'll take him for us before he dies. I'll dump some warm water in there periodically and keep the door shut to keep the room warm until then. We'll see. He is a butt ugly fish but I still don't want him to die.

My stomach is still in knots, thinking about the fire that could have started in my daughter's bedroom wall. We are going to have to call an electrician out here to replace the box in there, but I'm wondering if I should have all the electrical in the house checked and maybe updated. I'll be worried everytime I go to bed at night if I don't. Worried about my kids. I am also getting rid of the electrical baseboard heating in the bedrooms. Scares me too much.

So, if you haven't done it in a few months, check all your detector batteries. Make sure they all work. Replace old detectors. New ones aren't that expensive. Add more where you need them. I definitely am going to add a couple more. It may be overkill on the detectors but I don't care. Better safe than sorry.