Focusing on fire safety in your home

All right, everyone. So as we described before the commercial break, this next topic of conversation is just simply shocking. Overall, this dog, absolutely adorable, but wasn't the best boy. This video been going around a dog starting a house fire in Maryland. Now the entire video is nine minutes long, but you can see him kind of snooping around there. And we know that he eventually tried to jump on the counter, accidentally activates a toaster. And unfortunately, the fire claimed the life of three other pets, a dog, two cats, and caused $150,000 worth of damage to the home. Now, listen, I want to reiterate, I know this is far from common, but there are things some homeowners should know before leaving a home with your pets loose around the house. So to join us, join us and weigh in on the conversation. We do want to welcome on live a captain of the Tampa fire department, Henry Williams, captain Henry. I know this is an interesting topic to talk about, but we appreciate you coming on to do it. How are you? I'm wonderful. Good morning, Miss Regina. How are you? I am good. I'm so glad to be with you. I have to ask, I mean, in your profession, watching that video, I know you said you watched it last night. What are your thoughts here? Yeah. So as you know, it did come across my social media platform, my stream, and it is, it's almost shocking because something that we take so for granted can cause so much damage in such a short amount of time. Yeah. I mean, and it's just wild that you think, oh, Hey, I can leave. I mean, I leave my dogs home loose around the house all the time. So, I mean, I guess first question, whether people have pets or not, what is the best rule of thumb for counter appliances like toasters, coffee makers, air fryers, when we leave the house? Yeah. So as someone who's always had pets growing up, one of the main things that we don't even think to do is to unplug those appliances. Had that toaster not been plugged in, the fire probably would not have started. And so for those of us who have those animals who are known counter surfers, unplugging the toasters and small appliances that alleviates that issue. Yeah. And I'm honestly, you know what, it seems like relatively easy information, but I am even guilty of not doing it myself. And then, I mean, for pet owners who have counter jumpers, cause I mean, this dog, he's, he's pretty tall when he stands up, but people also have curious cats. I mean, what physical barriers or safety habits do you recommend to keep them away from kitchen appliances in general? Yeah. So unfortunate incidents and situations like this provide us with the opportunity to just remind the community of just some things we often take for granted. We need to stay fire vigilant and safe. And so for those many reasons and more, one of the things we can do is crate your animal, especially if you know that they are those counter surfers. If you don't have a crate, you choose not to do that. You can also put up dog gates, kind of keep them out of areas or shut doors when you don't want them to be at, because in 20 years, it's like you said, it's very uncommon, but obviously from the video it does, it happens. Yes, apparently. And I mean, now I want to ask you too, with so much smart home technology available now, I know we can control a lot of things from our phones. Are there any specific smoke detectors or monitoring systems that you recommend that could alert a homeowner when something like this goes wrong? Yeah. So from, from that video, you saw that the owner was able to watch everything unfold. I don't know if he had a speaker where you can have a two-way system where you can kind of talk to the person in your home, but we always would recommend that you have working smoke detectors in the home. Obviously the benefit of that is also having a home surveillance system. If he could have had a neighbor come over or somebody come over, which I think it was the case, he alerted some of his neighbors, they were able to get inside and rescue two or three of the other animals that did survive. So home surveillance systems and all obviously always the early detection of fire. Yeah. All great points there. And where exactly should smoke alarms be installed in a house? I know kind of they come with the home when you buy it for the most part, but are there places people should put them where they are more effective than others? Absolutely. That's a great point. Anytime that you have a high traffic area, the kitchen, hallways, and anytime that you have a bedroom where you're going to be sleeping, where you may not be alert if a fire was to occur are great places of where you want to put those smoke detectors. The higher, the better. Obviously we all know that heat rises, smoke rises. And so it's a faster activation because we know that time saves lives. So high traffic areas, kitchen, and also outside the bedrooms. And I mean, in your experience within the department, what would you say the top three most common causes of accidental house fires are that you see maybe on a more regular basis? Absolutely. So unattended cooking, which kind of falls into this category if you will, you can have those fire safety knobs for those who have older appliances. So obviously be very vigilant in the kitchen. Discarded smoking materials that are not extremely extinguished. Those are often large, large quantities of fires that are received from the area. And just kind of just carelessness. So those three things, the kitchen, carelessness, and discarded smoking materials. All right. Well, anything we may have missed, anything you wanted to chat about as we talk about this uncommon but important topic? So like I said, this is a very unfortunate situation. Three animals lost their lives. The home is significantly damaged, but just it serves as a reminder, let it not be in vain, that we all remain vigilant. Even when we think that we're above it, just forget about it. Just remain vigilant for fire safety. Absolutely. Well, Captain Henry Williams with Tampa Fire Department, thank you so much for joining us to talk all about this. We appreciate you. Great insight. And we hope you have a great day. Thank you. You too. Stay fire safe. Stay fire safe. Yes, indeed.