It was a Sunday evening in August, when a late summer thunderstorm passed through Columbia, S.C.
“I had never heard a clap of thunder or seen lightning like I did that evening,” Betty Morris said.
Morris was cooking dinner when she saw a red flash outside her window. Lightning had struck her home.
“It came looking for the first source of electricity and it got my dryer,” Morris said.
Suddenly, her home was filled with smoke. Her CPI Security Smart Smoke Detector triggered an alarm, and a CPI Security Central Station Operator urged her to get her family out of the house.
“I gathered up my husband and our two dogs, but I could not find our cat,” Morris said.
Morris stayed to look for Figaro, her cat, as long as she could, but eventually had to leave before she could find him.
She says the CPI Security representative was a calming voice during a hectic, terrifying time.
“Do you need the fire department,” the CPI Security operator said.
“We had a lightning strike and we had to get out of the house. And my cat’s in the house and I can’t find him. Please, there’s smoke in the home. Please, please!” Morris said.
“Yes, ma’am. Dispatching the fire department now,” the CPI representative said.
CPI dispatched the fire department. Thankfully, firefighters rescued Figaro before it was too late.
Morris credits CPI Security with helping to get her family out safely.
“I will never be without a smoke detector like this. One that will talk to you, because at that point you can’t think clearly enough to know what to do,” Morris said.
For more information on CPI Security’s Smart Smoke Detector and 24/7 fire protections services, contact a CPI Security representative today.