Check your smoke detectors, people!
 

Last week, I found out that my parents' house burned down. (For anyone who doesn't remember, I am not close to my family at all, and deliberately try to have minimal contact with them). Everything they own was apparently destroyed, and they're all staying with various relatives.

My mother left a pot of grease on the stove while she went to the store, and it ignited. My brother was home, and half the house was engulfed in flames before he realized what was going on. THE SMOKE DETECTORS DID NOT WORK! And I don't think any of them understand that they could've all been killed.

The house had actually caught fire twice before. Once when I still lived there (and the smoke detectors did work then); the second time, half the kitchen had burned down before my mother realized it.

The only thing that surprises me is that the fire wasn't started by cigarettes. My mother has a habit of falling asleep with lit cigarettes...the couch, carpet, and bedspreads are all full of holes where she's dropped them. They also set them on the edges of counters, where they fall on the floor, or into trash cans, which is how the first fire started.

So, yeah. Quit smoking and make sure your smoke detectors work, is my advice.

good advice & sorry to hear of their fire, my home was destroyed by fire when i was 6 yrs old~ it was july 4th & a bottle rocket flew into our chimney & ignited a birds nest~ we weren't home at the time & my dog was saved but all else was loss~ every 6 months i replace the batteries in our detectors & have them all over the house~ i also live right across from the fire dept, i mean right across, yeah it can be noisy, but it is somewhat comforting to know they are close by~ fires are sucha scary tragic thing to go thru, glad to know their was no loss of life~

I check mine...
 

about once a week after having the living crap scared out of me a few winters ago. The forced air floor furnace's motor seised up and shot flames out just below the ceiling, had I been asleep this house & myself would not have been here to bore y'all with another boring post.