This just recently happened.

Last year, we had a smoke detector with a 10-year built-in battery that was giving false positives. The manufacturer replaced it under warranty, but because I still needed to dispose of it properly, I just put it in the basement until I had time to get rid of it.

Since that time, it had not beeped once.

Two weeks ago, it started beeping, but only a few seconds and maybe once a day. Annoying, but whatever, it was going to be thrown out anyway.

But then it did it more often, until finally, it was going nuts one morning last week, and I had to permanently disable it.

As it turns out, that evening, a house on our block went up in flames. A total loss. None of the other smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, CO detectors, or even air quality meters picked up on anything that day.

Coincidence? Perhaps. I can't explain it at all.