practice drill

I had an early morning wake up.  At 5:30am I heard an alarm going off.  I tried to ignore it thinking it was my son's and he would turn it off.  I finally got up and found that it was actually coming from the basement CO detector.  Unsure what to do I got my 17 yo son up and asked him to check it and the fire.  The fire did not do well last night and was out.  We opened doors, windows, called my husband who is traveling.  His phone went straight to voice mail.  Called my son who is traveling with him and finally talked to someone. We took down the detector and checked for batteries.  This one doesn't do batteries. We finally called 911 and had 2 fire trucks out front.

They came in with lights spinning around the neighborhood but decided it was not necessary.  We had dressed and come out to the car, dropped Sim off at the temple for baptisms and kept the car going to stay warm.

They sent in to firemen to check the house.  They did a thorough check throughout the house and came back saying all is clear.  That leaves me with some wonderings as to what I am suppose to do to make sure we really are safe.  They checked our detector and said it looked like a good one and to call them again if it goes off again.  Basically that means they're done worrying.  Now its up to us to figure out if there is/was/will be a problem, if we are fine and I don't even know what else I should worry about or check on.  CO is not flammable so we started up our fires around the house and are still trying to warm up.  So far we all seem to be ok.  I have a worse cough than usual and it sometimes becomes violent enough that I think I could throw up but no such luck.  Maybe it is just the power of suggestion.

I am feeling very grateful that we heard the alarm, that my family was able to evacuate and stay calm. I am grateful that I was able to get the emergency help I needed.  I am grateful that we got to practice an emergency situation without having anything go very wrong.  Some things I want to figure out

1. What should I dress in when I don't know if I will be allowed back in the house for hours or more?  (I should have grabbed a heavier coat and my glasses). I even thought about which bra I wanted and if I should wear sweats and be comfy or have some real cloths in case I am not allowed back in for a long time.
2. We should sleep with our doors closed so that a gas is less able to come into our bedrooms.
3. We should get more than just the one detector
4. Maybe we should have grabbed our 72 hour kits (just in case, for good practice)
5. I did think to grab my phone and purse just in case.
6. I should clean my house better every night.  I had strangers and friends (the firemen) wandering every room and closet in my house.  There are some simple things that I could take care of each night and there is the fact that we wouldn't want to have any tripping or injury hazards if we have to get out in the dark.
7. Our furnace area is hard to find.  Is there something I should do to help strangers know where to look?
8. I did realize that our family memories and important documents were not in danger but I did think about the fact that if they were, what would I take?

We all spent several more hours after the "all clear" being out of the house.  If felt right to come back slowly.  It has been 7 hours since that first alarm and nothing else has given us cause to be concerned.  We will hope for the best and I am learning more about carbon monoxide.