[HeavyBassMan]

Hi all,

I thought this was pretty serious and therfore had to post.

Last night, I put my phones on and went to bed. This is something I always do.. I had previously lit a candle in my bedroom and intended to distinguish the flame before I finally went to sleep. I love candlelight. Here is what happend.

At 5:00am, I suddenly awoke. Something was not quiet right. I could NOT hear. I worked out that my music had stopped (sleep timer), and my phones were still on my head. Upon my sleepy daze of waking at 5am, I looked down to the end of my bed. What I saw shocked me. There were flames at the foot of my bed. I had gone to sleep without putting out the candle. Something under the candle caught on fire.

I took my phones off as quick as I could. I thought I was having a nightmare. This was every bit real though. Once the phones were off.. I could not hear at all.. and it took about 30 seconds until I regained my hearing. Only then could I hear the smoke alarm which was VERY loud, just outside my bedroom door.

I put out the fire, and stopped the smoke alarm. I was in absolute shock. Wearing headphones had prevented me from hearing the smoke alarm. I am very thankfull that I woke up. I would hate to think what could have happened if I chose my IEMs instead

I've read reports that indicate it is common for people to sleep through their smoke alarms.. and this is WITHOUT having any headphones on...now I believe this is true. Lighting the candle and not putting it out was a very stupid thing to do. I learned my lesson and I will never do that again. Wearing headphones only made things worse.

This is a real warning for everyone who sleeps with their headphones. Fires can and do happen all the time. Please don't think 'this will never happen to me'.. I thought something like this would 'never happen to me'
....it just did. I was so lucky.

I live alone, I could have easily not woken up. I could have died.

 

[squall2072]

Glad to hear your ok, but your bed on fire and being deaf for a few moments! That would really mess me up!

Pehaps you woke up because of the smell of smoke, luckly you did.

Nice to see your still with us mate!

And remember to put out the candles, or just get a lamp instead!

 

[robzy]

Dude - good to hear you are okay.

Rob.

 

[dbintoro]

Thank god you are okay man! God has woke you up. LOL btw I have HD595, I want to use it while sleeping but I scared it will break by the pressure of my head against my pillow lol. Will it break easily ? Well perhaps after reading this thread I may changed my mind. =P

 

[shuurajou]

Glad to hear you're ok. That must have been really frightening.

I'm also glad you took the time to post about it. To be honest I'd listen to you more than I'd listen to any TV show or manual

. So thanks for taking your time to share the story.

 

[creyc]

I dont understand how you became temporarily deaf, unless you listen to music at earsplitting levels while sleeping and thus picked up a temporary tinninitus case?

regardless, glad to hear it worked out and you're still with us! Sorry to hear about the bed.

 

[Zorander]

Thankfully I am never comfortable with wearing headphones on the bed. IEMs would make a different story though. Glad to know you're okay though.

 

[dmoffitt]

Considering I can't hear the "In preparation for landing, please stow.." announcements on the plane w/ my Shures, it's probably not all that safe to sleep with them - thanks for the warning, I hadn't thought of the smoke-detector warning. When I was in college we lived in a dorm designed to be accessible to deaf people - thus EVERY room had strobes associated with the fire alarm (and the doorbell, made for great pranks hehe) - something you don't have in the home...

 

[digitalD]

Yes, glad to hear you're okay. Strange though that you did lose hearing for that amount of time. Besides putting out the flame, you might want to consider using a candle holder, for all your candles (just in case) or just a plate or something. I don't know what woke you up, but if you wanna go Pulp Fiction, divine intervention (not that I believe in that sort of thing but it'd be interesting huh?).

 

[MdRex]

1. the temporary hearing loss probably have little to do with the music (since presumably the music have stopped a long time before you wake up).

2. naked flame is NOT SAFE as a nightlight, I cannot emphasize this enough. Use a electrical lamp.

3. I almost always sleep in my headphones without hearing loss ever.

 

[ricksome]

Thank God are still with us. Thank you for the post...Rick

 

[HeavyBassMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorander Thankfully I am never comfortable with wearing headphones on the bed. IEMs would make a different story though. Glad to know you're okay though.

.. IEMs were considered just before I went to bed. Glad I didn't use them now, that's for sure.

I just 'googled' some info on waking up to smoke alarms.. The following is just something to think about:

major problem involving children and house fires; studies show that children often sleep through a normal smoke detector's alarm -- or else they respond so slowly that they cannot escape the house within the critical two-minute time window.

Children have both longer and deeper sleep patterns than adults

^ I thought the above information would be good to add for parents who are Head-Fi members (or anyone else reading threads here). Especially if their kids use headphones at night.

I do know that I tend to go into a really deep sleep.. but..I still don't know why I couldn't hear anything at all (why was I 'deaf' for like 30 seconds?). It may have just been from the shock or fear of the situation? I just don't know.

Here's another google search:


Most fire fatalities occur at night. Contrary to popular belief, smelling smoke rarely awakens sleeping people. The most common cause of death is smoke inhalation. Fire and deadly smoke spread rapidly in a house fire. Families have only a few minutes to escape and survive.

So that answers why I didn't wake up to the smoke.

Please be safe everyone.

HBM

 

[Screamager]

Happy to hear you weren´t burned at all. Go out and buy a lava lamp.

 

[Duggeh]

I glad to hear that you escaped from this relatively unscathed dude, but, and I intend to convey these words in the most authoritive but polite way the internet allows, using candles when you are going to be sleeping is damn stupid. I hope that you've decided to go and get one of those lamps that you can clap on and off, that way you dont have to leave your bed to put out a naked flame next time.

 

[HeavyBassMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeavyBassMan Hi all, Lighting the candle and not putting it out was a very stupid thing to do. I learned my lesson and I will never do that again.

Duggeh ^ from my original post.