LOS ANGELES -- A beloved pet dressed in a Halloween costume, posed next to a lit jack-o'-lantern, sounds like a great photo opportunity -- but it's also a fire hazard.

Pets and other animals inadvertently set about 510 house fires every year in this country. From 2006 through 2010, such fires annually caused an average of $8.7 million in property damage and injured eight people, said John R. Hall Jr., division director for fire analysis and research for the National Fire Protection Association.

Animals -- including wild ones or pests like rats or insects -- are capable of starting a fire any time, but most involve a heat source, such as a stove, light fixture, candle, embers or space heater, Hall said. And over colder holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, there's often more activity than usual around those sources.

On Feb. 4, a family in Vancouver, Wash., left a new puppy home alone for the first time -- and also food on the stove. The dog turned on the igniter trying to get to the food, said fire department Capt. David James. The dog died, and the family's rental house was destroyed.


A dog and a stove nearly set afire Kay Wardlow's home in Norman, Okla., three years ago. Lucy, a Labrador retriever-basset hound mix with a penchant for chocolate, tried to take a cake off the stove while the family was out, Wardlow said.


They were alerted to smoke in the house when their home security company called to say their alarm had gone off. Lucy had hit the knobs on the gas stove, moving the automatic igniter just enough so that it kept tripping and trying to light, she said.

"The heat melted the plastic on top of the cake pan and that's what filled the house with smoke," she said. Firefighters told her that if the alarm company hadn't notified them, it would have flamed over and set the house on fire.

"You could smell the smoke from the street," and the smoke was so thick that she couldn't see across a room, Wardlow said. When they opened the door, Lucy bounded out, wagging her tail and glad to see everyone. "It's hard to look at her and be mad at her."




Wardlow made preventive changes after Lucy's near-catastrophe. The dog now stays outside when the family isn't home, and if she has to remain indoors, Wardlow removes the stove knobs.




In the event of a fire, animals have only a few minutes of advantage over people, James said.

"When a fire first starts -- it's true -- hot air rises, but then it gets trapped and starts banking down. Heat will follow the smoke and all the objects in the room will reach ignition temperature, and then no place is safe," he said.

That's when pet owners should stay put, rather than attempt to enter a burning house to rescue a pet.

How to avoid pet-set fires
  • Keep fire extinguishers in rooms where fires are likely to start, such as kitchens and garages.
  • Use flameless candles.
  • Thoroughly douse cigarettes in ashtrays and fires in fireplaces.