“Why yes, I WOULD like to burn down your house!”

Laundry day was yesterday, and as such, the less-than-optimal dryer was in use.  In use, that is, until the smoke detector went off.  Since I was out getting some Freecycle loot, DH turned off the washer and dryer and tried to figure out what was up.  He discovered that the dryer vent had obscene amounts of lint in it, that a washing machine full of laundry and water if VERY hard to move, and that despite there being no obvious smoke, the detector was still screaming away.  He removed the battery.   When I returned, we took a detector from another part of the house and set it in the laundry room, nothing.  So we concluded that the original detector must have been faulty.  But we couldn’t totally rule out issues with the dryer.  We decided the landlady needed to get a phone call.

I explained the situation to her, and also verified that she’d seen the email regarding the police visit. We talked a little bit, and I tried to drop hints that we needed a solution, now.  She said something about trying to call some people to figure out the burning smell, but that would have to wait till Monday.  She suggested that we could still use the dryer, so long as we were at the house to monitor it.

“Worst case scenario, if a fire breaks out, you could stop it.”

Uh, come again?  Are you kidding me?  Did she ACTUALLY just suggest that it was okay if a fire broke out in the laundry room?!?!?!??!

We keep the door to the laundry room closed to keep the baby out.  The laundry room window was open.  If a fire broke out, we probably wouldn’t notice it until the whole laundry room was engulfed in flames!  I convinced her that was NOT a safe option and I think we ended that they would be getting a new dryer.  I still ended up having to go to the laundromat to dry all of the clothing.  Fun for DS, annoying for me.  I’m hoping the new dryer comes soon.  Maybe I should have told the landlady, “Why, yes, I’d be happy to burn down your house for you!” . . . then maybe she’d be a bit more speedy about resolving the issue!