Our upstairs smoke detector has gone off a couple times in the past week or so, most recently on Father’s Day morning, around 5 am. (Grrrr….) Both times there was no apparent issue, and it soon stopped. The second time I pulled it off the way and dumped a stack of quilts on top of it. That should shut it up. The darn thing was probably just getting low on batteries.

This morning I decided to take another look at it and found some instructions on the back of the unit. The signal it was giving off was supposedly the smoke alarm; the low battery signal should be different. And I bought these smoke detectors because they would last at least 10 years. It’s been nowhere near that yet.

Then I read that you should remove all dust from the unit every so often, with canned air, or whatever. I blew it out, and there had been dust in there all right. I don’t know if that was what was causing it to go off yet–only time will tell there–but it was a good reminder. Even if we have a smoke alarm built to last a decade we should still test–and clean–it regularly. It’s recommended we choose a normally-occurring yearly even to help us remember when to check, like Daylight Saving, or your birthday, or something else fairly regular. However you choose to remember, remember! Though house fires are less common than they used to be, they can still happen. Give yourself and your family as much time to respond as you can.