You need one of these, or two, or three...

A carbon monoxide alarm!

We had a scare at the house tonight. With only the kids at home and me and PP on the way from our work places, the furnace choked and spewed out rotten egg sulfur infested gases in the house with some carbon monoxide, which caused the alarm to go off. The kids called 911 (thanks!) and got out of the house, so when PP and I got home there were firetrucks, ambulance, and police here. Kids were safe, just some oxygen for one of them, and the house had to be aired out. No fire, thank god! The firemen were very confused by our dual wood/oil burner and also by the heat tank of course. After 40 min or so we could go back inside and then the kids and I went off to get Chinese take out for dinner. Nobody was in the mood to cook. Our oil company service guy showed up after 30 min, I guess when you mention fire trucks that they decide they need to be here. The whole oil burning part of the furnace was all full of soot, and it had clogged the exhaust pipe, but it is all cleaned out now. We are not sure why it happened, why the oil burner burned so bad and clogged it up. But thank god that 1) it didn't happen at night, 2) that someone called 911, and 3) that nothing caught on fire. And mainly - I am so happy we have carbon monoxide detectors. If not, the kids could have stayed in the house and get poisoned. So all of you, get carbon monoxide detectors now! Many thanks to our kids AREA and LA, and to the neighbors and local volunteer firemen and EMS too! Thank you, thank you.