So late last night, just as Alan and I were about to crawl into bed, the explosive gas alarm that we have in the kitchen began beeping and flashing the word “gas.” We got up to investigate, but couldn’t find a source. So we called the fire department, shoved the cat in the carrier, put on our shoes, and evacuated our house (in our pajamas).
About a minute before the fire department arrived, the alarm stopped beeping, which is a good sign on the one hand, but unfortunate because we still don’t know what caused it to go off.
The firemen (four of them) swept through our entire house with their own detectors and couldn’t detect any significant amount of gas (only about 1-2 ppm total). They were able to scroll through the history of my explosive gas alarm and saw that at one point it read as high as 33ppm, which is a lot.
We were cleaning a bit earlier. Alan was running the vacuum, and I had sprayed some disinfectant in the garbage can. So, we’re assuming one of those two things set it off. My money is on the disinfectant spray.
I’ve had my explosive gas alarm for about five years now and it’s never gone off before. At least now, I know it works (maybe a little too well).
- Feb 10, 10:20 AM
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1 · Karen Miedrich-Luo · Feb 10, 11:02 AM
I have a strong fear of not being able to smell smoke or gas, as well. When I lived in china, we had huge canisters of gas under the sink with a line attached to the portable stove. The first night I moved in, my housemate taught me the invaluable rhyme: lefty loosey, rightie tightie. It became my mantra before sleep every night.
2 · Blindsquirrel · Feb 10, 12:41 PM
I had no idea that such a thing as an Explosive Gas Alarm existed! I’m definitely putting one in my apartment immediately. My biggest fear is not being about to smell a gas leak, and so I’ve only used my stove about five times in four years!
3 · Heather · Feb 10, 02:56 PM
Oh yes, Blindsquirrel! Get one now!