Dogs Often Burn Down Homes - Most Recently In Covington

COVINGTON, WA - There's a cute video on YouTube that shows a golden retriever hopping up on a stove to snatch a pancake. The dog gets the treat, but accidentally turns the stove on in the process. You see flames leap from the stove as the dog trots around the house nervously.

It's frightening (and a little cute for some reason) to think your dog might be home alone playing with fire. And you should be. It turns out, dogs start house fires frequently, and many are linked to stoves that get turned on by a wayward paw.

Last Saturday in Covington, two dogs died in a house fire along 263rd Street Southeast. The dogs were home alone when one - or possibly both - accidentally turned on the gas stove, according to Puget Sound Fire.

About a month ago, this reporter came home from to find the gas stove on. The culprit was almost definitely my doe-eyed German wire-haired pointer, who has never met a counter she can't climb. But I was lucky. There was a cast iron pan under the burner, which prevented the flames from igniting nearby objects.

Now, I take all the knobs off the gas stove before I go out.

Here are a few other recent examples of turning on the stove and burning down the house.

• Last October, a schnauzer puppy in England searching for treats got up on the stove and turned it on. The dog survived, the kitchen did not.
• In 2015, a black lab tried to sneak a slice of pizza while his owners were in the other room, switching on the burner in the process. The pizza box went up in flames, but the fire was quickly contained.
• In April 2017, a black lab in Chicopee, Mass., turned on a stove while licking a cutting board. He burned the house down, and another pet died in the fire.
• Last month, a dog in Ohio - you guessed it - burned down his house after trying to grab a snack off the stove.

In total, pets start about 700 house fires per year, according to the National Fire Protection Association. The NPFA offers some tips about how to prevent a pet fire, but most solutions are common sense - especially when it comes to leaving food out.

That pancake dog? Luckily, his owners had an alarm system and firefighters got there before things got out of hand. The Southwick, Mass., fire department released surveillance video of the fire to show how easily your best friend can burn your house down.

Caption: Olympia, age 2, grabs a treat off the stove.

Photo by Neal McNamara/Patch