About halfway through the service this morning some one came into church and asked if The Squire would come help with a problem. The smoke alarm in the kitchen was going off and nobody could get it to quit.
Lovely.
By the time the service was over the alarm was still going full tilt. The Squire tried calling the phone number above the above the alarm panel, but the service has been changed and that was the number for the old company, not the new one. Not only could we not get it to turn off, but the alarm system had already called the fire department. The neighbours were treated not only to a non-stop claxon, but the bells and whistles of the local VFD. 
The firemen were no luckier than we were with getting the alarm to stop. One fellow even climbed up on the countertop to reach the box, but even after he removed the battery the fool thing kept on blaring.
AHA!
In the midst of all this commotion, The Squire realized the noise was not coming from above the door but nearer the stove. On Thursday, somebody had pulled the Carbon Monoxide detector out of the electric outlet to plug in a crock pot for the weekly soup supper, and forgot to plug it back in, which means it was running on batteries. When the battery went dead, the alarm started. And kept on and on and on.
There is peace in the valley once again. Whoosh!
thisendoftheswamp 
Oh my that’s quite the Easter excitement! I live in fear of my smoke alarm going off as I can’t reach it even on a ladder and it’s wired into the whole building’s system and goes to the fire department:(
The ceilings in the parish hall are very, very high – at least ten feet, so I can appreciate your fears. As I said the fireman, who was taller than The Squire, first got on a chair and then stood on the counter to reach the fool thing.
That’s crazy! These things need to be accessible!
I had seen the photo that Betty shared with the fire truck. Nothing like a little thing like a dead battery.