Dog starts fire, sets off smoke alarms after accidentally turning on stove burners

A dog in Colorado Springs, Colorado, accidentally turned on stove burners, setting off smoke alarms and forcing its owner to extinguish the fire.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department released surveillance footage from inside the house this week, showing the curious dog inadvertently turning the dial to start a burner while sniffing at the boxes piled on top of the oven.

On Wednesday, June 26th at 4:43 a.m. CSFD was dispatched to a possible structure fire at a home on the 1600 block of Rushmore Dr. Homeowners reported to our call takers that they had experienced a fire on the stove in their home that had been extinguished by one of the… pic.twitter.com/lohlgUvC2q

— CSFD PIO (@CSFDPIO) July 2, 2024

At about 4:43 a.m. June 26, the fire department received a call about a possible structure fire, and found the fire extinguished and only evidence of the blaze remaining when they arrived at the house.

The homeowners told firefighters they woke up because of a heat notification from one of their Apple devices. The surveillance footage also showed the smoke alarms going off.

The unnamed male homeowner who put out the fire was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, with no other injuries reported. Fire officials did not name him or the dog involved.

“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 on Facebook.

While the family in the house has insurance, the fire left them displaced, their upstairs “unlivable” and items and clothes in the house damaged by the smoke, Kim Smith, the mother of the house’s female homeowner, said on a GoFundMe page.