Turned Upside-down

One of my friends heeded the advice of her mom and picked up a carbon monoxide detector at the store. Moments after plugging it in at the apartment she'd lived in for over a year, the thing was going off. The literature in the box says over and over not to ignore it if this happens, so she called information to ask what to do. The kind woman at information answered, "Can you hold for a moment?" My friend, "Sure." Seconds later, "This is 911, what's your emergency?" My friend explained that she wasn't sure it was an emergency and 10 minutes later firefighters were running up her stairs. She opened the door before they could kick it in and as soon as they got inside all of the carbon monoxide detectors on their jackets started going off. They evacuated the building. From buying her carbon monoxide detector to evacuation took about a half-hour. It's amazing how quickly these things can happen. What's even more interesting to ponder is whether she always had a problem with carbon monoxide or whether it happened on the same day her mom urged her to buy the detector.