Mudroom Update with First Alert

Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. First Alert 10-year sealed battery alarms offer hassle-free protection that helps keep your home and family protected for a decade! #LiveWithA10

Hey friends!  Today I am sharing a little mudroom update with you in collaboration with First Alert.  I jumped at the chance to partner with first alert for this post for a very important reason that I will be sharing with you today throughout this post.  I want to share with you a very heart wrenching story, and my reason for wanting to share with you about the importance of installing First Alert alarms throughout your home, and the benefits of 10-year sealed alarms.

The morning of December 8, 2018 started out completely normal.  My husband and I were headed to Pittsburgh, PA with our 11 year old child to do some Christmas shopping, and we were feeling the excitement of the Christmas season.  My 18 year old son was at his college dorm room, and my daughter was in Miami, where she lives, preparing to go to work.  During our drive to Pittsburgh, I received a phone call that changed mine and my two oldest children’s lives forever.  It’s a phone call that no one ever wants to receive.

It was my ex husband’s uncle on the other end of the phone line.  He called to tell me that my ex husband, the father of my two oldest children, had been killed in a fire in his home that morning.  I felt the weight of the world crash down upon me in that very moment.  The screams that came from my body were unrecognizable.  I felt like I wasn’t even in my own body.

My husband pulled the car over as I came to the realization that I had to tell my children their father was gone.  How could I possibly get the words out?  And it wasn’t only that.  Yes, he was my ex husband.  We had been together at one point in our lives, for 12 years.  I had loved him, married him, and had two children with him.  We had been through so much over the years.  And a lot of it was really really bad.  But in the past few years, we bad been making an effort to be friends and co parents.  I talked to him on the phone at least once per week, if not more.  And in an instant, all of that was over.  Just over.

We turned the car around and headed towards my son’s college to find him so we could break the news to him.  We decided that we needed to tell him in person.  Unfortunately, that would be impossible with my daughter, being that she lives in Florida.  I’m not going to go into the details of those gut wrenching moments when I had to tell each of my children that their father was gone.  But I am sure you can imagine what transpired.

It has been three months now since my ex husband passed away.  He was living in a rental home.  The home was a total loss.  The 911 call came in in the early morning hours, around 6:30 am on December 8.  At this point in time, here is what we know so far.  His body was so badly burned that they were unable to identify him.  They had to use a chest X-ray from his doctor to identify him.  The cause of the fire has still been undetermined.  Everything he owned was lost.  So nothing for my children to keep to remember him by.  We do not know whether or not the house had smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.  We do know that his body was found in the kitchen, and that they think the fire started in the kitchen.

My husband, who ironically is a fire fighter, thinks that he may have been asleep in his bed upstairs, which was directly above the kitchen.  And he thinks the fire burned so hot that he never woke up, and his bed may have collapsed into the kitchen below.  But we may NEVER have all of the answers as to what happened on that dreadful morning.  Knowing that he may never have woke up makes me wonder how he could have slept through the smoke or fire alarms going off.  I am haunted by this question on a daily basis.  And so is his entire family who has been devastated by his loss.

For awhile, I struggled with whether to share what happened on the blog.  But when I received an email about this opportunity, I realized that I had an opportunity to use my voice to tell all of you how important it is to have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.  We’ve never had a scare with carbon monoxide, but we have friends who have had a very close call.

We will forever view fire in a much different light.  And I hope after reading this story, that you will too.  It is so important to protect the lives of your most precious loved ones.

Also, it’s the law! Did you know all states have legislation requiring smoke alarms? States like New York and New Jersey have legislation that just went or will go into effect that requires 10-year sealed battery alarms. Check the requirements in your state. https://www.firstalert.com/community/legislation/

First Alert 10-year sealed battery alarms offer hassle-free protection that helps keep your home and family protected for a decade.  They have given us an extra level when it comes to having peace of mind that our family is safe and protected.

10-year alarm benefits:

More saving: No costly battery replacements for the life of the alarm

Hassle-free: No more climbing up the ladder to change batteries

No late night low-battery chirps

First Alert kindly sent my family two different smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.  We were so happy to be able to update our old ones.  We think they had been here for maybe 20 years.  We feel so much more safe and secure and protected now that we have made this important update in our home.  We installed one in the mudroom, which is downstairs, and right outside of my son’s bedroom.  And the other is in the upstairs hallway, right outside of the other three bedrooms in the house.

We received two different alarms.  The one we installed in this mudroom is the 10-Year Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Voice Alerts.  The voice tells you the location of the danger, and we have tested it out several times.  The one we installed upstairs is the 10-Year Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm.

Some important product features of both 10 year smoke and carbon monoxide alarms:

• 2-in-1 protection against smoke and carbon monoxide

• No low battery chirps or battery replacements

• End-of-life warning. Let’s you know when it’s time to replace.

•  Along with the 10-year sealed battery, some First Alert alarms also have voice alerts. This alarm will tell you the type and location of danger in your home.

Safety Tips:

• Install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every level and in every bedroom of your home.

• Test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms regularly.

• Replace batteries every six months or upgrade to 10-year sealed battery alarms to eliminate the need for battery replacements for the life of the alarm.

• Alarms don’t last forever, remember to replace your alarms at least every ten years

• Plan and practice an escape route with your family.

We really love the low profile of the two new alarms.  They are very unobtrusive, and they look so much better than the old ones.  The old ones were crusty looking and yellowed.  These ones are clean and bright white.  Such a huge improvement!

We are so blessed to have three healthy children.  Two of them are not pictured here because they are adults and do not live at home.  There are still times that we are all under the same roof, and one of the most important things we can do is keep all of us safe.  We are so thankful for the oppportunity to tell our story today and hopefully inspire some of you guys to update your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.  Nothing matters more than the safety of our families.