Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Smoke-Filled Chaos

Two nights ago I awoke to the sound of my hubby racing up the steps yelling my name and the screeching of the upstairs smoke detector where our baby girl Scamp was sleeping. It was 2:30 am, and the blaring alarm was actually coming through the baby monitor. I was still in quite a daze, but the smell of smoke caused me to rush to throw on clothes and shoes just in case we had to go outside. I prayed frantically that God would let us find where the smoke was coming from.

As I was about to climb the steps to Scamp's room, I saw Beef racing in from outside in nothing but his boxers. He didn't think twice about any of our neighbors being night owls until after he came back in. He told me to go get Scamp and look around to see if I saw any smoke. I reached the top to find her still laying in her bed, grinning at me as if nothing strange was going on. I didn't see any smoke, just smelled it, and had to take a moment to sit down and catch my breath. The feeling of my heart pounding through my chest had made me a little light-headed.

I brought Scamp downstairs to cuddle on the couch until we could figure out what was going on. I had already offered to call the fire department, but we couldn't find the source of the odor. Beef had already checked nearly every electrical outlet in the house and was now laying on the floor underneath a side table in the living room sniffing the vent to see if the smell got any worse, and it did. He thought the smell was probably the emergency heat coming on and causing the lent and dust in the coils and filters to catch fire.

The emergency heater in our HVAC unit normally causes the stench of smoke when it comes on for the first time every year, but it has never caused the fire alarm to go off, especially from the alarm upstairs. The smell did in fact accentuate with the heater blowing, so we settled back down to try and catch a few more hours of rest.

Beef decided to sleep upstairs with Scamp. I don't think I could have had it any other way. I fell back to sleep and awoke to Scamp's chatter around 9:00 am or so. Beef later told me he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep after the alarm went off. He stayed awake listening and checking every creek in the wall. He wanted to be sure there wasn't anything smoldering in the walls. What a brave hubby! I am so lucky to have such a good man that would fore go sleep to keep his family safe. And thank God we were all safe.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a scary story, glad everything is OK!! You are so right you have a very good hubby there..to stay awake and make sure nothing else would go wrong. Your daughter is adorable, wish are girls could meet. Also, love your "meet the family" on your side bar..very sweet.
Smiles,
Jeannene

Donetta said...

Wow that must of been scary. I love having a good man too. I am glad all is alright.

Heart of Rachel said...

I'm so glad that you're all safe and nothing bad happened. I admire your husband's quick thinking and great effort in checking your place for any possible cause of the smoke.

gail@more than a song said...

That must have been so scary, but what a guy your hubby is! So sweet for him to stay awake and check on y'all. Glad everyone is ok!
Your little one is adorable!

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

Wow, I was so worried when you started out about smoke, and alarms screeching. I'm so glad it all turned out ok. How scary, I bet it took a long time to calm down and get back to sleep. So incredibly sweet of your hubby to look over you guys and take such good care of you. He wasn't about to let anything happen to his girls :)

Our heater has a smell when we first turn it on in the winter (which we haven't yet), from the dust we always assume. How scary to think it could catch on fire. Glad it's all ok.

Have a good day!

Anonymous said...

How scary! I am glad you are all fine!

Annie said...

Very scary! So glad it is okay!

Sonya said...

How scary! I would have been frantic as well! We had to turn our heat on today and we always get the same stench you mentioned. It was pretty strong today but has never been bad enough for our smoke detector to go off.

Thank God that He kept all of you safe and that there was no real danger.

Anonymous said...

Praise God that you were safe. And he did answer your pray. Praise him for that! I just came over from Thoughts of a Wannabe and am reading your wonderful blog. Love the background. Hope to talk soon. Blessings.