Do we call the fire department?

That was the question we kept asking each other when we returned home after church on Sunday afternoon. As we pulled in, we could hear the distinct sound of smoke alarms going off. I know this sound well, as anytime I try to make chicken fingers in my oven, my smoke alarms always go off (I'm not sure why it's always the chicken fingers???).

Anyway, back to the alarms. After determining that they were NOT coming from our house, we started our detective work. They sounded like they were going off in the unit right next door. So Gabe walked around, looking for smoke or something, but didn't find anything. He knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, knocked on the sliding door in the back. No one was home.

The boys that live there have only been there for about a month, so we didn't have any contact information for them. I did a little detective work myself and got on the tax assessment page for the Town of Normal. It lists realty transactions, owners, etc (a little tip I picked up during my short stint as the Secretary of our Homeowners Association). So after tracking down the new landlord, Gabe called and well, got his answering machine.

Now what?

Do we call the fire department? At this point, the alarms have been going off for awhile. We're pretty sure that there isn't an immediate fire, but we really didn't know. And since their unit is connected to ours, we didn't want to wait to find out. I was definitely fretting over whether or not they would be mad that the fire department knocked down their door, but thoughts of all of my stuff going up in flames soothed my anxiety.

So Gabe called the non-emergency number for the fire department. And he got an answering machine. Hmmm, this is becoming a trend. Luckily, they gave him another number to call, which we think was the actual fire department. We explained the situation and they said they would come out and take a look.

And they did. With their big fire truck too! Too bad Caleb was taking a nap. We considered waking him up for it, but naps are too precious. They circled the place, considered all of their options and decided that climbing up a ladder to a second story bedroom would work the best.

After about 15 minutes of scaring all of the neighbors, they came out and said it was a faulty smoke alarm. Thank goodness!

Needless to say, we have since met the boys that live next door, as the fire department left them a note and one of them came over to talk to us on Monday night. Gabe also had a very long conversation with the landlord (who ended up being some composer that Gabe knows and has played many of his pieces), which turned out to be great, as he promised to cover his window well in the back (so as to keep our 1-yr old from falling in it).

So good news all around! It's not often you have to call the fire department - it was a pretty eventful Sunday afternoon!