The Tinley Family's First Full-Scale Evacuation, Part II
Read part I here
When we arrived at Mimi's house ("Mimi" is Meyer's name for Ashlee's mother), we started troubleshooting and called Nashville Gas. Despite instructions on Nashville Gas's website to take immediate action if the presence of carbon monoxide is suspected, the folks at the gas company weren't too concerned about the prospect of the air in our house being fatally poisonous. We were told to call back when we started experiencing clear symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning (burning eyes, nausea, headaches, and so on). The fact that we had a toddler and a fetus in our care didn't seem to make a difference to the gas people.
We enlisted our friend Zach to do some web research and called other friends and family members to see if their carbon monoxide alarms had ever gone off, hoping that they would know what to do. Eventually, Ashlee and I returned home, leaving Meyer and the cats at Mimi's. (By this time, tensions were high between our cats and Mimi's cats.) Upon returning home, we went next door and spoke with our neighbor, Rob, who knows about this sort of thing. Rob came over with carbon monoxide sniffer and checked the vicinity of the alarm, the water heater, and the furnace for traces of the deadly, colorless, and odorless gas. His meter detected nothing.
Rob and I then changed the battery in the CO detector (although Ashlee had changed the battery in recent months and the alarm gave no indication that the battery was low). Upon our changing the battery, the alarm stopped chirping. We felt pretty confident that there was no significant carbon monoxide presence in our house. Still we decided to call 862-8600 (the non-emergency equivalent of 911) and asked if someone could double-check our house with the heavy duty equipment.
We made clear that our situation was not an emergency—we had evacuated the child and the animals, we had a place to stay, and we were fairly sure that we had a faulty alarm rather than a carbon monoxide problem. Nonetheless, ten minutes later a full-size fire engine arrived on our cul-de-sac with lights flashing. The firemen (since all the firepeople were men, I will forego gender-inclusive language) thoroughly scanned our house for CO and found nothing. They were very graceful, didn't treat us like idiots, and thanked us for being so cautious. God bless the fire department.
By 7:45 (after a no-longer-boycotted Taco Bell dinner), Ashlee, Meyer, Baby #2, Reggie, Naomi, Rivers, Curtis, and I were again living in our home. (Unless one of them left us a present in the car, none of the cats had to "use the litterbox" during the entire three-hour period.) I was still a little nervous, but when I awoke this morning, everyone was still alive.
When we arrived at Mimi's house ("Mimi" is Meyer's name for Ashlee's mother), we started troubleshooting and called Nashville Gas. Despite instructions on Nashville Gas's website to take immediate action if the presence of carbon monoxide is suspected, the folks at the gas company weren't too concerned about the prospect of the air in our house being fatally poisonous. We were told to call back when we started experiencing clear symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning (burning eyes, nausea, headaches, and so on). The fact that we had a toddler and a fetus in our care didn't seem to make a difference to the gas people.
We enlisted our friend Zach to do some web research and called other friends and family members to see if their carbon monoxide alarms had ever gone off, hoping that they would know what to do. Eventually, Ashlee and I returned home, leaving Meyer and the cats at Mimi's. (By this time, tensions were high between our cats and Mimi's cats.) Upon returning home, we went next door and spoke with our neighbor, Rob, who knows about this sort of thing. Rob came over with carbon monoxide sniffer and checked the vicinity of the alarm, the water heater, and the furnace for traces of the deadly, colorless, and odorless gas. His meter detected nothing.Rob and I then changed the battery in the CO detector (although Ashlee had changed the battery in recent months and the alarm gave no indication that the battery was low). Upon our changing the battery, the alarm stopped chirping. We felt pretty confident that there was no significant carbon monoxide presence in our house. Still we decided to call 862-8600 (the non-emergency equivalent of 911) and asked if someone could double-check our house with the heavy duty equipment.
We made clear that our situation was not an emergency—we had evacuated the child and the animals, we had a place to stay, and we were fairly sure that we had a faulty alarm rather than a carbon monoxide problem. Nonetheless, ten minutes later a full-size fire engine arrived on our cul-de-sac with lights flashing. The firemen (since all the firepeople were men, I will forego gender-inclusive language) thoroughly scanned our house for CO and found nothing. They were very graceful, didn't treat us like idiots, and thanked us for being so cautious. God bless the fire department.
By 7:45 (after a no-longer-boycotted Taco Bell dinner), Ashlee, Meyer, Baby #2, Reggie, Naomi, Rivers, Curtis, and I were again living in our home. (Unless one of them left us a present in the car, none of the cats had to "use the litterbox" during the entire three-hour period.) I was still a little nervous, but when I awoke this morning, everyone was still alive.
posted by Tinley | 8:40 AM
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