Protecting my home with First Alert

Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. First Alert 10-year sealed battery alarms offer hassle-free protection that helps keep your home and family protected for a decade! #LiveWithA10

January of 2017, our family’s life changed in a matter of minutes. It was a cold January day and we decided to take our family for an outing. Our 3rd baby was only a month old, so this was probably one of the first family outings since giving birth to Joel. Prior to leaving, I asked my husband if it was cold outside so I know if I should wear boots or sandals (Floridian problems lol). My husband stated that it felt nice out, so I took my socks off because I was going to wear sandals. We loaded all the kids in the car, diaper bag was packed, all I had to do was put my sandals on. So when I walked into the garage I quickly realized that my definition of cold, and my husband’s definition was completely different. I needed my boots. So my husband got in the car and waited for me to run back inside and grab my socks so I can wear boots. As I was walking back to the garage, I could see flames in the kitchen window reflection. I ran to the kitchen to confirm what I saw and immediately ran back out to the garage to tell my husband the stove was covered in flames.

My husband then jumped out of the car and flew to the kitchen. He quickly reacted and grabbed the sink water sprayer (I don’t know the proper name, but you know the thing that’s like a kitchen sink hose lol). He grabbed that and sprayed water all over the stove, and the cabinets above the stove. It felt like an hour to completely put it out, but really it was like 4 minutes. In those 4 minutes I was in a state of pure panic. Like how did this happen? What would have happened if I just wore sandals and never came back in the house? Who turned the stove on? What caught on fire? Does our homeowners insurance cover fire damage? Why wasn’t our smoke detector working? So many questions running through my mind!

After my husband put it out, Our house was pretty smokey and the smell was unforgettable. I took the kids out of the car and let them play in the back patio while my husband and I cleaned up. We had to open up all the windows, take all the window curtains down to be thrown into the wash. Thankfully our couch as the time was leather (actually it was pleather but that’s another story) and it didn’t absorb any of the smell/smoke. We mopped the floors and wiped down the walls. The bedrooms were not affected because we actually closed all the room doors before we left. If you’re wondering how the fire started, a box of cereal was left on top of our stove. Either myself or my husband, or one of the kids accidentally bumped the knobs on our stove (our knobs are at the front of the range) and coincidentally the box of cereal was on that burner. It eventually caught on fire right around the time I was walking back into the house to grab some socks. Had I never gone back into the house before we left, our house probably would’ve been burnt down.

This small kitchen fire really left me with anxiety. I became paranoid about smoke detectors, and bought good reliable ones, enough for every room. Every time we’d leave the house, I’d check the stove several times. While we were gone, I’d worry that our house was in flames, so I would check our security cams. It was hard living and continuing my life worry-free for awhile.

My husband and I sat down and really talked about what had happen because he saw, it was eating me alive. And we made a vow to never let something like this happen. We decided to take precautionary actions immediately, and those actions were…

1. Not setting anything on the stove: It’s hard for us because our stove is in the center of our kitchen located right in the middle of the peninsula. When we get home from grocery shopping, that’s our go-to spot for dropping everything. So we made a huge effort into not doing that anymore.
2. Getting knob guards: They sell these basically anywhere, but we got childproof knob protectors to prevent the stove from turning on accidentally. We stopped using them after a year or so, but this helped out so much!
3. Having a functioning fire extinguisher in the kitchen: At the time, our fire extinguisher was in the garage, not within arms reach of the kitchen. So we make sure we keep that under our sink, so it can be grabbed quickly!
4. Come up with a plan: In the event a fire were to happen, we need to have an escape plan. Just like how kids have fire drills at school, we needed to have a fire escape plan for our family.
5. Getting good and reliable smoke detectors for every room: The smoke detectors we had were in our house from the previous owners. We never really checked and monitored them, so that explains why our smoke detector never went off when the fire took place. We decided to buy a 10-Year Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm from First Alert. We heard so many good things, and read so many positive reviews about this brand and knew this is the one we wanted to protect our home.
   • We also have gas appliances and what stood out to me the most was that it monitors Carbon Monoxide levels throughout the home. If you don’t know, carbon monoxide is the silent killer.
   • Another amazing feature of this First Alert alarm is that it’s good for 10 years, that means no changing batteries for 10 years. No late night low battery chirps. And best of all not having to worry about a smoke detector that’s not functioning properly. Peace of mind is the winner for me.

Did you know?

• 3 of every 5 home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no working smoke alarms.
• A Fire Department responds to a fire every 24 seconds in America.
• Smoke alarms provide early warning in the event of an emergency in the home.
• Different states have different laws pertaining to smoke detectors and alarms? Here in Florida: “Solely battery-operated smoke alarms must be powered by 10-year sealed batteries. State law allows 10-year battery-powered smoke alarms to replace hard-wired alarms in Level 1 renovations. Wirelessly interconnected and multi-sensor alarms are exempted from this battery requirement.Smoke alarms are generally required in residential settings. Hard-wired smoke alarms are required in all new construction.CO alarms are required in the new construction of every building that includes a fossil-fuel-burning heater or appliance, fireplace, or an attached garage. To learn more about your state’s law, click here

It’s just so frightening to think of the what ifs? What if I never ran back into my house for a pair of socks. My house probably would’ve been 100% gone. All of our memories, first birthday parties, my home delivery, our first house would’ve been JUST a memory. And all of our things (and I know they’re just things) pictures of my kids, my wedding dress, our kid’s baby books with their foot prints, those are the things that mean the most to me, that would’ve been gone in an instant. So please, check on your Smoke Detectors batteries, or consider upgrading to a 10-Year Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm from First Alert, you won’t regret it.

Thank you again for First Alert for sponsoring this post| All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.