AG Heroes: A Silent Emergency

“You and your family should leave your home immediately, but don’t worry, help is on the way.”

When Lauren received a call from AvantGuard operator, Thomas, about her fire alarm going off, she was initially confused. She didn’t see or smell smoke, or see any fire, so her initial thought was ‘false alarm’. However, the alarm that was going off wasn’t the fire alarm - it was the carbon monoxide alarm.

Lauren and her family had been dealing with the repercussions of Hurricane Ida, but what she didn’t realize is that the storm had knocked something loose in the generator her family was using for power, and it was leaking carbon monoxide into the house. “I don’t know why this alarm is going off, I don’t see any smoke. I checked and there isn’t a fire going on anywhere,” Lauren said to Thomas at AG.

Thomas checked the signal and once he saw that it was a carbon monoxide signal, not a fire alarm, he asked Lauren and her family to quickly vacate the home because it might not be safe to remain in the home. Lauren didn’t understand because she couldn’t smell or see anything that would trigger the alarm. Thomas calmly and quickly explained to her that carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless, but extremely poisonous and that if the alarm is going off, there is enough of that gas in the house to cause harm. Lauren got off the phone, grabbed her family and left immediately.

Thomas quickly dispatched emergency services to the home. When the fire department arrived, they tested the home and detected dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from the generator causing a poisonous gas to fill up the home. Lauren quickly realized if it wasn’t for the AG operator calling and explaining the immediate danger to her and her family, she may have just turned the alarm off and ignored it.

After the situation was handled, Lauren called into AG’s Dealer Care department to express her gratitude for the potential life-saving call. “I would have thought it was a false alarm had Thomas not called.”

Thanks to the quick actions of Thomas and her fire and carbon monoxide system, a quiet yet dangerous situation was avoided.

*the names of those in this story have been changed