Don’t make my mistake: check your smoke alarm

Thirty seconds! Thirty precious seconds! That’s all the time I had last Christmas morning between hearing my smoke alarm and having to get out before my house went up in flames.

I was in the shower. It was 11.20am. I was alone. Everyone was gone to Mass.

I timed it later — 30 seconds. But for the smoke alarm, I’d have been trapped in the bathroom.

Others, the same day, in Ireland and Scotland, were not so fortunate: they died in their house fires.

Smoke alarms can be annoying.

For example going off during a fry-up when the door from the kitchen to the hall is left open: “Switch off that smoke alarm, for God’s sake. Take out the battery and leave it out,” and so on.

Two weeks before my narrow escape from death, my grandson, Adam, had remarked: “Granda, your smoke alarm is beeping; you need to put in a new battery.”

I said I would see to it. But I didn’t.

Adam himself got the new battery after a few days and put it in.

So I wish all a Happy Christmas and maybe getting a smoke alarm, or checking the one you have, will ensure your Christmas really is happy.

Joe Conroy

Ashgrove Drive,

Naas

Co Kildare