Smokey the bear

For some reason unknown to me and the rest of the sane world, the wife asked me to test our smoke alarm while we were putting the kids to bed last night. It is hard-wired to the house electricity and therefore does not require regular battery checks. The wife knows this but asked anyway. The smoke alarm worked properly, in fact, it kept on chrping even after I stopped pressing the button. I pressed the "Hush" button with no results. The d*#n thing kept chirping every 30 seconds for the next half-hour. At one point, the wife looked at me and said, "Something's wrong with that thing, can't you make it stop?" I don't condone spousal abuse, but I understand it.