I’m standing in line at TSA at San Francisco Airport when I receive an alert on my phone.
The smoke detector is going off in my home. A moment later, my phone starts ringing. It’s ADT, calling about the alarm.
I’m seconds away from handing my passport over to a TSA agent, so I ignore the call.
I’m not worried. Elysha is home./ I confirm this by looking at her texting icon, which lists her location.
Newington.
I also happen to know she’s cooking. We don’t have a hood over our stove, so when we cook things like bacon, the alarm will sometimes go off.
Elysha can take the call and explain the situation.
A few minutes later, just as I clear security and board a train to my terminal, I get another ADT alert on my phone. The doorbell camera has detected movement.
Not unusual, except the alert goes off again and again, so I click on the alert, which allows me to see the camera’s image on my phone and hear anything happening outside our door.
I see a fire truck parked in front of my home. The lights are flashing. Two firefighters are opening compartments on the side of the truck.
I call Elysha.
“Hey,” I say. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she says. “Just cooking.”
“The fire alarm went off,” I say.
She explains she was cooking bacon, but everything is fine. She’s already turned off the alarm.
“A firetruck is parked outside our house,” I tell her. “Two firefighters are coming to the door.”
“What?” she says and hangs up.
I turn the doorbell camera back on. I watch as Elysha exits the house and runs over to the firefighters. I listen as she explains the situation.
I watch the second fire truck arrive. Two more firefighters appear on the scene.
Then I watch as Charlie leaves the house to take photos of the event before the firefighters enter with a vacuum-like device, presumably to extract the smoke from the home and ensure all is well.
I close the ADT app.
I purchase a chili dog at a Nathan’s in the terminal.
I sit, eat, and marvel at technology. Even though I am 3,000 miles away, I knew the fire truck had arrived before Elysha.
I knew about the smoke alarm at the same moment as Elysha.
I was able to monitor the whole situation in real time.
I was even able to speak to Charlie through the doorbell’s microphone.
Amazing.
How far we’ve come in such a short time.
Then, between bites of my chili dog, I remove a pad of paper and a pen from my backpack.
It contains my to-do list.
Old technology that still works well for me.
I write, “Call ADT. Add Elysha’s phone number.”
I suspect she didn’t receive a call after all. Apparently, ignoring that phone call in the TSA line had been a mistake and had dragged some firefighters from their station for nothing.
Human error.
Even the best technology can’t correct that.
