If You're Flammable and Have Legs, You are Never Blocking a Fire Exit. ~ Mitch Hedberg

I met my first set of neighbors because of the fire alarms. We had a year where the alarms would just go off for what appeared to be no reason what so ever. Usually when the weather was cold and nasty and snowing/raining.

Sometime after 4 this afternoon, all of the appliances plugged into a 220v outlet turned off. It was quite disturbing for most of the house to go absolutely quiet. I opened the front door to check the fuses and heard the neighbors downstairs doing the same. I confirmed that they too did not have any electricity, and within a minute of coming back inside, the fire alarm started going off.

Because of our history of random smoke alarms, I wasn't rushed in any way to get the kids up from their impromptu nap and get pants on them to get them out of the house. The downstairs neighbor knocked on the door, and told me there was a fire.

Did you know the proper response to that is NOT "Is there really?"

I didn't until today.

Actually, I never think I pictured myself being in a position where that would even remotely be my first thought to someone telling me the building where I live was on fire.




The fire was started by some faulty wiring in a fuse box on the first floor. No person, animal, or property (aside from the fuse box) were damaged. I will say that we've now had fire and flood in this month alone. That only leaves famine, right? And we live within walking distance to the store, and several restaurants. So we're good.