Story of the Day 9 / 28/ 2016

This is a story of the day that occurs in multiple parts. The first part was the last story that I posted.
The addendum to that story is that, after another couple of weeks, my son had a flashing smoke detector installed in his apartment by the management.

Hearing that, you might think that the saga of the smoke detector was over, right?
Nah.

That was just the first part of the story.


The second part of this story occurred, yesterday .

On Tuesday, Sarah called me on Skype.
Actually, she called my cell phone.
When Sarah calls my cell phone, it means that there is something very important and she needs to speak with me, just not on my cell phone.
You see, Sarah is also deaf and she hears nothing and doesn’t use spoken English at all; so calling me on the cell phone is simply a way of sounding an alarm that I will hear, to let me know that she needs me.
And, I saw that she had also texted me asnd said “SKYPE!!!!”

So, I quickly connected with her via Skype and she told me that there was a burning smell in their apartment. The smell had started about 10 minutes after her roommate had turned on the oven to make a casserole.
The girls were not sure, but they thought it might be the smell of gas.

I asked a stupid question, “Is the oven clean?”

Now, this is a very stupid question. These girls rented a house, last year.
When I moved them in, the house was….dirty. The kitchen cabinets were sticky with food residue and there was about 3 decades of dirt in the basement.

The next time that I came to visit, not only was all of that dirt gone, but they had cleaned – to a bright shine- the overhead ducts in the basement that had previously had a few inches of dust covering them.
I mean, how many people go and use pledge on the basement ductwork in an unfinished basement?
The lemony scent went really well with the cold cement floor and walls....

So, I knew the oven was sparkling clean.
(Dang, why can’t I get them to come clean my house?)
And, yes, Sarah responded that the oven was clean.

I told them to open the windows, and to turn off the stove.
Then I told them to call the gas company.
Sarah’s roommate did this while I stayed on Skype with Sarah.

A few minutes later, Sarah tells me that the gas company is telling them to call the fire department.
The girls don’t want to do this, but I tell them that is what they should do.
At this point, I tell Sarah to keep me updated, and we disconnect.

About 15 minutes, or maybe 20 minutes later, Sarah calls me back.
After I got off of Skype with Sarah, the fire department told them to leave the apartment and wait.
When the firemen came, three of them, two suited up and one man in nice clothes who seemed to be in charge, they brought equipment and checked the apartment for gas.
They found no leaks, but they agreed that they were smelling something burning, something chemical.

After nosing around the building, they discovered paint thinner in the apartment right beneath theirs, which was being readied for a new tenant.
The paint thinner had been left just below the area that was the girls’ oven. When the oven was turned on and the air started being exhausted and new air drawn in, what was drawn in was the paint thinner fumes from the apartment below.

The paint thinner was properly closed up and removed from the building, and the firemen left;
but not before showing the girls that the smoke detector was in wrong. The men kindly pulled it down and fixed it and reset it.
Of course, the fire detector was not going to do the girls any good, you see, it was a regular one, not a flashing smoke detector……..I will get back to that part of the story, in a minute.

The girls went back to cooking dinner and homework, and a minute later, a light is being flashed in their window…..on the second floor.
They go to the window and see that the firemen are trying to get their attention.
The man from the gas company is now here, and he can’t get their attention to let him in.
He can't do that, because the landlord hasn’t yet installed a flashing doorbell.
The girls let him in and he checks and agrees with the firemen that there is no gas leak.

After Sarah calls me back on Skype, I ask, appalled, “Why are there no flashing smoke detectors and doorbell?”

When moving in, Sarah’s roommate asked them to install them, and was told by the maintenance man , “I don’t know how.”
She thought that meant that he would figure it out and come back and do it, but that was a few months ago,
so , apparently it meant, “I don’t know , so too bad.”
I told the girls to send a letter in with the rent check- due to be mailed- and I typed up a short note for them to adapt as they saw fit.


I also sent them the contact information for Protection and Advocacy in Rochester, NY.

That is the second part of the story.

I am sure that there will be a third part.