Fire alarm - anyone up?

[PiratePetespajamas]

Our fire alarm has just gone off (three long beeps and a pause, on repeat). We all went out and DH checked the house - no sign of fire or smoke. The only way to stop it was to remove the alarm. We do have two; only one went off.

Now what? Do we need to alert the fire service? We’ll buy a new alarm today in case it was faulty. I read that dust or bugs can make an alarm go off but I’m a bit spooked. DH and the kids have gone back to bed but I’m sitting up, anxious in case ther IS the start of a fire we didn’t see. What else should I do???

It could just be the battery. Replace that tomorrow. No need to tell the fire service.

Hoover it. Could be blocked.

If it's battery operated wouldn't it just beep? Mine do.
OP if you can't smell smoke there's probably not a fire. Turn electric off?

Yeah, I thought there was a different sound for low battery - manual confirms the same (beeps intermittently). This was definitely the alarm.

Smoke alarms don’t go off for invisible smoke-that’s why flapping a tea towel round the kitchen one works. Also, if it was reacting to smoke, it would just go off again.

As someone whose 3 year old woke us all at 4.15am, go back to sleep!!!

The normal round smoke alarms only go off when there's fire nearby them, not like a industrial building where theres loads of sensors and only a few alarms.
Mine beeps like this very occasionally.
If there nothing around its probably dust, change the battery and stop worrying.

Change the battery mine does that noise when its nearly flat x

If it's not the battery then the actual alarm head may have reached the end of its life. They do have an expiry, we had to replace ours. If you just google the make you can buy a replacement head unit that they attached to the bit fixed to your ceiling and wired in.

Do you check your smoke alarms? Always a good idea to test every week and vacuum once a month. Could be the battery still.