Public servants deliver great customer service
Friday night, Myles and I arrived at our ski house around 10 PM. This was several hours later than our usual arrival time as his third grade basketball team had the honor of playing during the half time of the Brookline vs. Wellesley High School game. The good news was that leaving at 8 meant very little traffic and we made the drive without delay. The bad news was we heard a beeping noise when we entered our home. It sounded like a smoke detector in need of a fresh battery, so I headed to the check the usual suspect on our second floor. To my surprise the noise was coming from a box on the wall I had never paid much attention to. Turns out it was the CO2 monitor and the indicator light was blinking yellow. Not realizing how dangerous a CO2 leak could be (until my wife explained it to me in no uncertain terms a few minutes later), I casually pushed the reset button and the noise stopped. At least for a few minutes until it was replaced by the shriek of the alarm, which sent Myles running outside and dispatched a couple of fire engines to our home.
Within minutes, Andrew Vermeersch, Adam Trayner and Brendon Oriordan arrived at our house, happy to see the two of us out front and no one passed out inside, They proceeded to enter the house and check all levels with their hand held CO2 detector. Finding nothing, they concluded the false positive alarm was caused by a faulty detector.
The fact that the officers were incredibly nice and friendly despite being called out in zero degree weather at 10 pm on a Friday night was impressive, but what happened next really impressed us. In addition to checking the air and the alarm, they went on to check for a weak battery in the CO2 detector and even replaced a wall anchor when the mounting screws came out, checked all of our smoke detectors and replaced a battery in one, and finally politely asked if they could see the rest of the house. This request was so they would know out layout if there ever was a real fire emergency, they would know how to get around and where we might be sleeping or trapped to facilitate a rescue.
Myles and I both thanked them for their help and I asked if we could pay them for their trouble, or make a contribution to the fire department. They replied, “No, just tell our chief we did a good job.” So, to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire’s Chief of Police Dave Noise and Fire Chief Chris Hodges, your guys did a GREAT job!
