PSA: Smoke and CO Detectors

[eeyorethegreat]

This is a Public SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
PLEASE, PLEASE check your smoke and CO detectors to ensure they are in working order!!!

This morning, the kids and I were having a lazy morning since it has been a busy hectic week. My younger son says to me, "I smell something burning like melting plastic or something." We had been smeelling a strange odor the last few days and hadn't identified it but it wasn't over powering so I thought nothing of it. You know how sometimes you smella strange scent and then a couple minutes later it is gone? Like that. This time it was an undeniable odor. I got up and started to look around.

The power cord that my quartz space heater (one of those in the wooden cabinet sold online or in hardware stores) was plugged into was smoking! Now some one here may correct me because this may have been a bad thing to do. I used a pwercord with a surge protector on it so that if for some reason the cord had a problem or there was an electrical surge the electricity would be turned off to the appliance. There were NO other items plugged into the surge protector. I thought this was an extra safety method, maybe I was wrong but I found nowhere in instructions that we should not do this. Anyway, the cordlplug was so hot that it was melting the surge protector (which by the way never shut off the way I thought it would). I was able to turn off the heater and unplug from the wall. The outlet itself was not hot. I may have made a mistake in using the heater this way and if I did lesson learned. I won't ever use one of these devices again.
Back story:
I bought this product because all the literature said how safe it was. Safe around kids and pets unlike the heaters you can get at Walmart. One was able to leave it set at a certain temp and it would go on and off as needed so one could feel safe about leaving it plugged in at night and even when one wasn't home. This was all either said to me at the sale or in the literature or both. So I felt pretty safe using it. Some nights when it was really cold I would leave it on set to turn on at a certain temp then turn off. Our pellet stove is unreliable and goes out from time to time I had it serviced this winter after a good deal of issue with it (pellet furnace) and sfter that it ran well but on sub zero nights it didn't always heat well and I wanted the kids to be warm so I set the quartz at 62 so it could go on and off as needed and they would be warm. And it seemed to do that.

Anyway point is I had this Quartz model plugged in sometimes running as it was set to do at night when the kids slept upstairs and I downstairs. To think that this thing could have caught fire any one of those nights makes me sick! Here's the other thing. I changed the batteries on the smoke/co detector at the beginning of fall/winter. Occassionally did a test with the button on the front but truthfully I hadn't checked it the last couple months it slipped my mind... I checked it after this incident and sure enough the batteries were dead. You know how the detectors usually beep for low battery, this one never did I hadn't checked it like I shoudl have monthly at least. I had only been using the heater the last few weeks for 15 min to half hour at a time just to take the chill off then I would turn the power button off. To think though that I ran this all winter long with a smoke detector that at some point failed- well needless to say I am feeling very blessed right now that not this incident happend while we were all awake and we averted a real fire. I could be without my children and with out my life right now if this had happened at any other time.

Please please go right now and check your smoke detectors. Make sure they all work! Make sure your children know how to get out of the house and where to meet you. Make sure they know under no circumstances are they to re enter the home for anything. This is my public service announcement to you. And never ever trust any plug in heater of any kind no matter what the literature says or the sales people tell you.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I agree! I witnessed an insane fire that destroyed a house across the street from my parents' a few years ago. I'm paranoid about fires and check everything constantly. I can't stress it enough!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I agree as well. One of my sisters (I have 3 younger sisters) old house on her property burned to the ground thursday night.

She was out of town with her 2 children but her husband was at their new home.

Their 2 dogs woke him up in the wee hours of the morning freaking out. He thought the dogs were upset over a deer going near their house but he got up, heard the smoke alarms going off at the old house and called the fire department.

The fire department was unable to save the house but was able to stop the fire from spreading to their outbuildings and propane tank. They live in the country so it takes 20 minutes for the fire department to get to their place.

They lost alot of stuff that was stored in the old house but the new house was ok and they are ok.

Without those smoke detectors going off, her husband may not have called the fire department right away because he couldn't see smoke or flames until 10 minutes after he called.

 

[timmac]

A few points that might help for the future...

1) Glad to hear no major disasters, and that you're a little more cautious for it.
2) A surge protector isn't what you want for a heater. Surge protectors are designed to prevent AC irregularities from damaging sensitive electronic devices, which generally are lower wattage. (Side note: A serious spike, such as due to a lightening strike, won't be stopped by a surge protector anyway) If you need any kind of cord for any sort of space heating device--and only if you really need the cord-- it should be one of the fairly thick extension cords that is UL rated. The instructions that came with the heater will probably tell you the minimum rating needed.

Glad everything is ok though!

 

[eeyorethegreat]

A few points that might help for the future...

1) Glad to hear no major disasters, and that you're a little more cautious for it.
2) A surge protector isn't what you want for a heater. Surge protectors are designed to prevent AC irregularities from damaging sensitive electronic devices, which generally are lower wattage. (Side note: A serious spike, such as due to a lightening strike, won't be stopped by a surge protector anyway) If you need any kind of cord for any sort of space heating device--and only if you really need the cord-- it should be one of the fairly thick extension cords that is UL rated. The instructions that came with the heater will probably tell you the minimum rating needed.

Glad everything is ok though!

Thanks
timmac,

I wanted to point out my use of the surge protecter because I thought I can't be the only person who thought that it would be safer to use than directly into the wall. See for some reason, I had this "feeling" and I wanted the the cord from the heater away from the wall you know just in case. Why this was my thought process, I don't know but that was my thinking behind using a surge protector and I never knew about lightning strikes and surge protectors either so that was informative as well. In retrospect, it makes sense that a surge protector wasn't the best choice. I am not sure if the issue stemed from the heater cord or from the surge protector or a combunation but if this message can make anyone else more aware of keeping their smoke detectors active and checked and not be complacent even with the "safest" of heating devices, then I am happy for it. This really shook me up.