Our smoke detectors went off at 3:15 this morning. They are super-loud and of course woke me up instantly. I got up to see what the problem was, cursing them all the while as I thought it was a battery issue and Steve had just replaced them.
When I stepped out of my room, I smelled a burning smell (smelled like burnt toast or popcorn) coming from upstairs. Yikes! I ran up stairs, woke the kids, and told them to downstairs. Kathryn and I searched all over and could not find the problem. We checked the attic and all the electronics. We walked through the whole house. We checked everything in the kitchen. We checked the heat lamps on the back porch. We checked the heat lamps in the garage. We could not find anything suspicious.
I was still hesitant to send the kids back upstairs to bed not knowing what caused the problem. So, I then called the non-emergency number and asked if they could have someone from the fire department come help me check.
The truck came out without its siren on (as I requested) but with lights still flashing. (I hope I did not give Troy and Minerva a heart attack!) The firemen also thoroughly checked out everything. The only thing we could decide is that it must have been something (a piece of insulation, a bug, dust?) that burned on a heater coil. Whew!
Back to bed a 4:15. All is okay. Thanks Fire Department!!!! .