Firefighters have shared a video which shows a family's dog almost burning down their house.
The Southwick Fire Department, based in Massachusetts, shared the bizarre footage, which was filmed with the family's home security system, as a warning to others about leaving items on the cooker-top.
Posting the video to Facebook, the Fire Department wrote that the dog had been attempting to get some pancakes which had been left near the gas cooker while the owners were out. While attempting to get to the pancakes, the dog had hit the ignition button and within minutes it was alight.
Fortunately, as the home had a monitored alarm system in place, fire fighters were able to get to the property and deal with the fire promptly.
The post read: "Alarms work! We would like to thank a local resident for sharing this video. First, we always caution about putting items on the stove. In this case, the family pet decided to help themselves to some leftover pancakes while the owners were away.
"Unfortunately, the dog hit the ignition button on the gas stove. Within minutes you will see the item on stove begin to ignite. In this case, the homeowner was connected to a monitored alarm system calling responders saving severe damage.
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"If you have pets or young children in the home look into safety covers for your stove controls."
The video has since been viewed over 35,000 times so the fire department is certainly helping to get the message out there.
If the family hadn't had smoke alarms fitted, who knows what might have happened before helped arrived. Although, it's pretty certain that with cameras to catch it there's no way anyone would have believed a dog caused the fire, least of all an insurance firm. Can you imagine coming home to find your entire house and its contents ruined, with no clue how it ever happened? Makes me wonder about every single unsolved house fire, to be honest.
Credit where it's due, though - if he hadn't have almost burnt the entire place down, I think this would have been a very strong effort from our four-legged friend. I hope his owners forgave him.
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/The Southwick Fire Department