Pyro pets: Japan study warns of critters causing increasing number of house fires
- A study by the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation found 61 house fires over the last decades were likely caused by pets
- Experts say the number has gone up with increases in pet ownership and the popularity of push-button gas stoves
Dogs, cats and even a pet goat have been blamed for a sharp increase in house fires in Japan, with experts warning that curious critters are causing the conflagrations by playing with igniter buttons on gas stoves.
A study by the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation found that very few house fires could be linked to pets before 2014 but that the subsequent increase is a result of more people keeping pets, animals being kept in the home when owners are at work and a new generation of push-button gas stoves that are popular with users because the cooking flame is easier to adjust.
According to the institute, 61 house fires in the last decade have been linked to pets accidentally starting a blaze in a home.
Gas appliance company Paloma Co took part in the study, with around 90 per cent of the total number of house fires traced to stoves, with the remainder caused by pets gnawing on electrical cords or urinating on exposed electrics.
An official from the institute told the Mainichi newspaper that curious cats were the most common culprits, causing fires by pressing stove-top igniters and then knocking over items on the top of the stove while dogs tend to trigger blazes by standing on their hind legs and pressing the igniter. The official did not explain how a young goat, mentioned as one probable suspect in the study, managed to cause a conflagration.
In July 2022, firefighters were unable to extinguish a blaze that gutted a flat in Kobe while the owners were away. The incident was blamed on the couple’s two cats, who both died in the fire.
Two days later, the proprietor of a pet store in the city of Toyota in central Japan said she believed one of the seven dogs in the shop managed to start a stove fire that caused extensive damage but did not cause any fatalities.
The institute called on pet owners to close their gas stove’s main valves when they go out and to find ways to keep animals out of kitchens or other places where they could cause a fire.
