For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 04, 2014

Yup, tobacco ropes can do that.

Amen

The house isn’t on fire. It’s just that the cigar is making enough smoke to set off the alarm, since the kids left it directly under the detector. Cigar smoke is thick and nasty enough to set off a dozen fire detectors.

Remember when they found it, it was unlit.

It is still a choice: or was. Perhaps what New York needs is a cop, a fireperson and an emt in every apartment. That would take care of it.

I’ve never had a cigar trigger a smoke alarm.

I know two little kids that are going to be in crap!

No, NO! You BOARD the kids for the night. Oh, wait….sorry, that’s the DOGS.

Didn’t know you were from The City. Much of my family was born there, but it’s, um, changed a bit since then. From now on when I offer to “send the dogs” I’ll make sure it’s both! ;-) (My father left New York after World War II, but he never lost his accent. I admit I feel more at home on the east coast than where I’m currently billeted.)

I agree. If you have small children they get into everything. How long would it have taken to throw out cigars and wine in plastic bag and take it out to curb?

SWEET! The house is gonna burn down & they’re all gonna die!

Dummy? That wasn’t very nice. Do these two even LIKE each other??

Mayor bloomburg is a real winner isn’t he.

2 people near me were killed because a contractor left a portable generator running in a garage beneath their apartment. A $25 CO monitor would have saved their lives.

My guess is that John and Elly both thought that the OTHER was going to clean up. Maybe John said that he would do it and decided it could wait until morning. Or maybe some guests (like Elly’s brother) could have offered to stay and help clean up. Either way, bad parenting leaving a mess like that and little kids around that went to bed early and therefore got up before the sunrise. The perfect storm…

It doesn’t take failing to clean up after a party for kids to find a way to do something dumb that can cause a fire. Back when I was a kid, my younger brother—around age 5 at the time—found some matches, lit one, dropped it, and set the sofa on fire. (Luckily, it didn’t spread before the firemen arrived.) Maybe the matches were too easily within reach, or maybe he could now reach where he couldn’t before. Parents are human and make mistakes.

Far from idiotic and a small price to pay for a life saved. Take a look at articles about children who have died due to carbon monoxide. Here’s one: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/10/16/4-dead-from-apparent-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-in-merillville/

May you never be a victim and may whatever you are angry about be calmed in your heart and in your soul.