Last year we had a fire start in our kitchen in the late evening while my wife was already sound asleep. It was a very scary experience, and we were lucky to escape without physical harm.
I was just getting ready to go to sleep, I noticed something smelled odd and I got up to get some water and to check it out and turned the corner to realize that I couldn’t see the other side of the house because it was full of smoke!
When I got to the other side of the house I could see that the microwave and cabinets above the microwave had flames coming out of them and the fire had already spread to the wall and ceiling.
I thought I could still deal with it so I grabbed the fire extinguisher (that we keep in the kitchen on the opposite side of the stove) and was able to extinguish the flames but realized it was still smoldering in the wall and ceiling, so I rushed in to wake my wife who was still sleeping even though the smoke alarms were blasting, later when I asked her she said she thought she heard it but fell back asleep.
It was a frightening experience and one that made me realize the importance of having effective smoke alarms. As someone with a hearing impairment, I know firsthand how easy it is to miss the beeping alarms. This is why we created a new kind of smoke alarm that can wake us up and keep our attention even if we are completely deaf. They do have some with flashing lights, but most sleep with their eyes closed.
It is my hope that this new product will help save lives and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
