House fires where your dogs are the culprit.
You may not believe me, but your own dogs are capable of setting your house on fire. In fact, our pets cause a thousand house fires every year. However, that doesn’t mean that your dog is an arsonist, it’s just that some owners overlook certain things in the house that could cause such an accident.
She only wanted a cookie
Ashley O’Donnell’s home in Jackson, Tennessee was almost swallowed by flames. As for the one who started the fire, it was her own dog, Molly. It was past midnight when the dog felt hungry for cookies.
The dog might have remembered her mom putting a plate of cookies near their stovetop and so she went there to find it. Ashley and her husband, Patrick O’Donnell, were already asleep at the time and they were completely unaware of what their dog was up to.
The hungry dog accidentally turned the stove on.
As Molly tried to reach for the plate of cookies, she unknowingly turned a knob in the stove with her large paws, causing a fire to light up. The unfortunate thing was the fact that a spatula was sitting right beside the stove and it was the first thing that was caught on fire. Seeing the lit stove, Molly casually walked away as if nothing happened.
The family suffered no casualties except for the burnt spatula.
Lucky for the family, they were able to rush out then put the fire out just on time. “It sat there and smoked for a while, I guess until it really started burning.
That’s when the alarm sounded off,” Ashley O’Donnell said. “Had it happened when we were at work or gone, our house would have burned down.” If it wasn’t for them waking up to the fire alarm, the whole kitchen would have been burned. The only casualty they had was the cracked stovetop, and of course, the melted spatula.
Dogs aren’t the only ones who caused an accident like this.
There are plenty of reports of fire being caused by people’s own dogs, including the one who dragged a mattress into the space heater. However, there’s also an incident where a cat was responsible for starting the fire.
It happened when a cat knocked down a candle over the mattress, causing a big fire that almost burned the whole house. Thankfully, no one was hurt by the incident.
How to prevent accidents like these?
The problem starts with you. Knowing that you have pets around the house, you should be responsible for where you put your things in the house. Here are a few pet-proofing tips that you can do to prevent pets from setting fires. To avoid stoves being accidentally lit up, you should put a cover on its knobs. It’s also unwise to leave food to a place where a potential fire accident could occur.
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As for electric wires, you should discipline them not to chew on them. If normal discipline doesn’t work, you could prevent them from spraying the cords with a smell they don’t like. They’d likely avoid those wires in the future. Investing in a working fire alarm is a wise thing to do as well.
If you didn’t know, July 15 is National Pet Fire Safety Day. This was inaugurated by The American Kennel Club and ADT Security Services to let people keep in mind how many pets are affected by house fires every year. Let this be an important reminder as to how important it is to follow prevention measures for your own safety and your pets.
Check out Molly’s story below!
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