Don't feel bad. I can out-stupid that.

My house has the wired smoke alarms with the battery backup, but I didn't know that. I have high ceilings and it's hard to reach the smoke detectors so I had dh check them for batteries. He couldn't find them and so we decided we didn't have any. One day, my smoke alarms started going off in some weird manner where they were going off periodically around the house. It wasn't a beep. We never got that. We got actual alarms.

I gathered the pets and my one child who was home and called the non-911 number for the fire department. Except, this is a rather large area and I called a fire department that isn't mine. The gentleman I spoke to recommended I call 911 and have them send a truck over to check it out. I called and tried to make it clear I didn't have a fire, I got a ladder truck with lights and sirens. It turned left instead of right when it came into the neighborhood so it had to circle around this whole section of the neighborhood. So the neighbors were all alerted. The elementary school bus came by right after the truck got here so those kids and their parents all saw. My dd was on the bus and she was scared our house was on fire.

The firefighters got in here. We found out that we did indeed have batteries and one had gone out. No beeping, but apparently the alarm is the second backup. The fire fighters left and I walked outside to several neighbors. I had to admit the fire truck was called because of a dead battery.

On the bright side, these are all newer houses and now everyone knows we have battery backup and we know the fire station across the street isn't ours.

Oh dear, Phoggie! Go to bed early tonight and sleep well. How miserable it has been for you!

Put changing the batteries on a strict schedule....perhaps every New Year's day. That way, this won't happen again.

We've had the same problems, so don 't feel alone. That chirping is enough to drive anyone up the wall.

Oh adebell....although it is funny now, I feel for you and your embarrassment!

My house is only 2 years old and the batteries were supposed to be good till 2020 and they do not draw much power since they are only back up for the hard-wired...so I really didn't think it should be the detectors. Oh well, I hope it is all quite on the home front tonight!....but you can bet I will check that CM detector first the next time!

oh Phoggie, I'm sure we've all had mysterious sounds that confounded us! I'm glad that you finally got it quieted!

abellabedella, I can just imagine your deep embarrassment :-)

LOL amylou. Several years ago I had a problem with chirping for days. It wasn't the chirping of a smoke detector but it was driving me crazy. I would go out in the garage and hit the trip switch, turning off one appliance at a time. First, the refrigerator, then the oven, then the dishwasher....it was definitely coming from the kitchen. One day I stood in the kitchen for a while, waiting to hear the beep and trying to track it down. Finally found the problem. It was one of the cell phones that needed to be charged. I guess before that I was always keeping them charged before they got that low. Boy did I feel stupid, but at least I know when I hear that sound to go directly to the phones and check them out. Sleep well tonight, phoggie.

OhMY....too funny! Talking to the wheelbarrow! and LOL.

Another - don't feel bad. We did extensive renovation 5-years ago (our home was 4-years old at the time) - removed carpet, replaced flooring, painted nearly all the rooms, and made a lot of dust and mess in the house. We also have the wired smoke alarms with battery back-up. In the middle of the night (why is it always in the middle of the night), one detector went off, then eventually all the detectors were going off in the house in a chorus of echoing alarms. Talk about jumping out of your skin!!!! No fire, just chaos.

Lesson.... Cover your smoke detectors with bags when doing renovation to keep them clean inside, and be sure to carefully vacuum them to remove any dust twice a year when you change the batteries (we change the batteries when the time changes). We ended up replacing all of the smoke detectors for peace of mind.