Alarm? What alarm??

Last Thursday, our carbon monoxide alarm went off in the middle of the night....for the very first time. It was LOUD!

At first, I couldn't figure out what alarm it was. It wasn't the house or fire alarm. I've heard those before and those were loud but not ear splitting....hubby figure it out pretty quick. I had completely forgotten we had a carbon monoxide alarm!

He quickly read the reading, unplugged it and took out the batteries (cuz our ears were ringing), and then we didn't know what to do.... It didn't help that we couldn't figure out what to do next, esp. since we couldn't find the manual.

On to the internet we went. We also opened the windows cuz umm....its carbon monoxide! Anway...long story short, we tested all the rooms in the house (even went downstairs to test the basement), and also called father-in-law to bring over his CO alarm (in case ours was faulty - and they only live 12 blocks away), and we even tested outside. They ALL had the same reading, and the alarm went off even outside!

Still don't know if it actually was faulty or not because according to the company website (of the alarm we had), an alarm goes off when the alarm itself, needs replacement. It could also have been a dead battery... There was also the smell of smoke outside so maybe something seeped into the house??

Anyway, we were pretty confident it was the alarm itself and that it was safe to close the windows and go back to sleep. The cat in the basement certainly wasn't acting funny, nor were the people downstairs. So we went to bed, after losing 2 hours of sleep.

And now we both know the symptoms of CO poisoning, and what to do when it is a real emergency.

We haven't plugged the alarm back in though....