If you have a pet at home, particularly a dog or cat, you should make it a practice to keep your kitchen door shut when you are not in the kitchen. If you like in a house with so-called modern architecture, where the kitchen is little more than an open-access nook, you may need to install barriers to restrict the access.
The reason is not just that your pets may want to explore the kitchen to find something to nibble on when you are not looking, and may drop things and dirty the place. The reason is also for your and their safety, to prevent accidents like the one that took place recently in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.
A pet dog set a house on fire when it accidentally switched on the oven while the owners were asleep. Closed-circuit television footage of the incident was shared later by the Colorado Springs Fire Department on Facebook.
The dog was exploring the kitchen, standing upright on the countertop, probably looking for a snack, when its paw accidentally turned the oven on. The burner had a few boxes on it which caught fire. The fire quickly spread to other nearby items.
The owners were awakened by a “high heat” notification from their Apple HomePod and quickly extinguished the blaze before calling the fire service. Luckily no one, not even the pet, was injured. Only the family member who extinguished the fire suffered some smoke inhalation and needed first aid.
“This is a good reminder to always have working smoke alarms inside and outside every sleeping area and on every floor of the home, ensure all combustibles are away from your stovetop/oven, and know two ways out of every room in your home in the event of a fire,” the fire department said later. TheSnout, of course, believes prevention is better than cure.
Sandy Pawpaw
Sandy Pawpaw is a fierce advocate of unleashing the animal in, and with, you.
