We were eating breakfast this morning when the smoke detector outside our apartment went off. It was a less-obnoxious beeping than most smoke detectors, so it took a while to figure out what it was. But, once we opened the door to check, we could smell the smoke. That eliminated all doubt.
There wasn’t much smoke and no flames, so we decided to take the time to get dressed and bundled up against the weather, and then went outside. A neighbor had already called the fire department, so we didn’t have to do anything except hang out and wait until they came. Most of our neighbors waited in the doorway, rather than stand out in the cold and wind, but I figured I didn’t want to breath even that much smoke.
It was only about 15 minutes before they said we could go back in. But that, together with a dentist appointment this morning, managed to put a big dent in the day.
The smoke alarm is still beeping every minute or so. I called the apartment office which said that they had thought it had already been reset, but would check and make sure. (Which I hope means that they’ll send someone over to take care of it, rather than just check and make sure someone said it had already been done.)
(By the way, my teeth are fine.)