Smoke Detector

You know how annoying smoke detectors sound when they go off?  I went out to the garden about 9 am to pick the beans.  After a time I realized I could hear a smoke detector.  I didn't think it was quite loud enough to be ours, but went up to the house and listened just in case.  I decided it must be the neighbor across the street on the other corner, but soon he came out, got in his car and drove away.  Surely he wouldn't do that if it was his smoke detectors screeching.  I walked around to the front of the house and then decided it must be coming from one of the houses across the street.  Seeing no signs of any smoke, I decided to just try to ignore it.

When Roger got home from school, he also noticed the sound, so took his hearing aids out.  That obliterated the sound for him, but was of no help for me.

Finally at noon, I couldn't stand it any longer.  There was clearly no fire and there was clearly no one home at the neighbors to notice the sound.  It was not an emergency, so I decided to call the police to see if someone could check on it, but the local police have a lengthy call menu so I gave up.  Then I called the county fire people, explained that there didn't seem to be an emergency but was it was annoying.  In spite of that I was advised to call 911 because 'there might be a fire'.  I figure if the fire wasn't visible in 3 hours, then there wasn't a fire.  Nonetheless, I dialed 911.  I explained that I did not think it was an emergency, but that I had been told to call.

Soon after, a police car rolled up across the street to survey the situation.  He knocked on the door, but of course, no one answered, because the neighbors were NOT HOME.  Do you think they'd be in there  listening to that thing screech for 3 hours?

He decided to go away and see if he could locate a way to contact the neighbors, but 3-4 minutes later he was back with a fire truck and an ambulance.  They all convened by the door then walked in as it apparently was not locked.  After maybe 10 minutes, the screeching stopped.  Soon after, they all drove off.

I have no idea if they ever contacted the neighbors or if they just decided to go in.  I don't know if the neighbors even know that 4 guys were walking all around in their house.  All I know is that the sound of silence was pretty sweet.

(You can't see the police car in the picture.  It was parked in front of the fire truck.  When they all left, it was like a parade.)