A RUDE Awakening!

Long after Matt and I had fallen asleep in our cozy bed the other night, we were awakened by a very mean sound. It was about 3 in the morning. Matt gets up at 3 every morning for work, but this morning he happened to hit the snooze button, and fell back asleep. Precisely 8 minutes later, we hear something ear-piercing loud through the entire house. At first we thought it was just the alarm going off again, but no... only seconds later did we realize that the fire alarm was going off. We immediately got up, and ran through the entire house to verify that there wasn't a fire. We then disabled all of the alarms. I went back to bed, and Matt started getting ready for work. After Matt left for work, I got up around 6 to get ready to do the same. As I was getting ready for the day, AGAIN, the alarms starting buzzing like crazy. I again, ran through the house to make sure there wasn't any fire, and tried calling Matt. At this point, Matt wasn't answering his phone, I couldn't get the alarms to turn off, and I was bawling my eyes out....yeah...it wasn't fun... I wasn't really scared, but more just stressed and too tired to deal with such a mess. Finally, I decided to call my dad for some comfort, and help turning off the alarms. Soon after, I was able to turn all of the alarms off, except one. The alarm was completely disconnected from the wall, and I had pushed the little red button on the back of it about 15 times, but it just wouldn't turn off! I finally ended up throwing in the closet and closing the bedroom door to muffle the noise. I again called Matt and was able to get a hold of him. I told him what happened, and the sudden concern of Carbon Monoxide in our house came to our minds. We weren't sure if our fire alarms were also Carbon Monoxide alarms as well. I got ready as quickly as possible, and left the house, leaving the alarm still ringing upstairs in the closet. During my day at work, I was really concerned about our home, and if I was going to be able to go home! During my lunch break I had called my mom, who luckily knew what to do! (Don't all moms!?) She called the fire department, and requested to have someone come out to the house and check it for Carbon Monoxide. I met the fire department at the house, and of course they had to come barreling down our street in their fire truck, WITH the lights on, AND the sirens going! How embarrassing! I had neighbors coming outside and staring, completely stopping their everyday chores. After a few neighbors came over to ask what was going on, the fire crew headed inside the house in search for the toxic chemical, while I waited outside. Luckily, there wasn't any Carbon Monoxide in the house, and after the firefighters brought me inside, they explained to me what the likely cause was. The one fire alarm that I couldn't turn off had lots of dust in it. Apparently, the dust can sometimes set alarms off, getting confused for smoke. All of our alarms in the house are linked together using some fancy wireless connection, so that was why all of them happened to go off together. Who ever knew that you needed to dust out your fire alarms!?!?! I was NEVER taught that in my homemaking classes in school! "Now ladies, remember, it is very important that we dust each and every fire alarm in our homes at least once a week!" Nope.... never heard it!!!! So I am glad to say that we are safe, and not so glad to say that it was a VERY tiring day! I sure hope your day was better!