HomePod Saves Family's Life After Dog Starts Kitchen Fire

[tridley68]

"accidentally" turned on the stove. It's reporting like this that lets these damned mutts keep getting away with it.

Fido was probably making some ham and eggs after the family went to bed.

 

[Kottu]

I think the whole story was made up by Apple Intelligence. Macrumors didn’t even verify the story before posting.
Anyone knows this family? I need to get in touch with them as I want to train my cat to make coffee.

 

[Zombicom]

This has nothing to do with audio. Homepods have temperature sensors. The notification was about Hi heat, not Loud noise (alarm). Glad for the family they could stay safe and deal with the fire. Image : Apple Homepods specs page.

 

[svish]

Glad to hear that no one was injured and all are safe.

 

[gaximus]

Do not blame the doggo, you put flammable things on a stovetop. Shame on you. The dog was just concerned about the flammable thing on the stove and checking it out, good dog.

 

[iMac The Knife]

Suuuuuuuure, blame it on the dog! 🤣

 

[Premium1]

I’m sure there are a lot of decent people commenting on Rumors, but the number of absolutely asinine comments on this story is, well, really impressive.

The HomePod can listen for smoke alarms and other things. It’s an accessibility feature. People sometimes sleep through alarms. Older homes may not have working, connected alarms. I had to pay an electrician to replace my 25 yo connected alarms.

If one doesn’t know how something works, and I’m just spitballing here, if one doesn’t know how something works, perhaps to avoid sounding like a [censored] one should either A) avoid commenting, B) investigate further, or C) rethink life choices and live off grid for a few years.

One more point, my Samsung stove has dials right in the front. My crazy pup lit the stove by jumping up. We have to pull the dials off and store them in a drawer.

(Furthermore, it’s a Samsung stove, not an “American” stove, so anti-American comments wouldn’t make sense in this context. Save them for another asinine comment.)

So it says homepods dont detect heat, and if the smoke alarms weren't working like you claimed, how exactly did the homepod detect it then? (since it listens for the sound that clearly wasn't there). This whole thing seems strange (not saying it didn't happen). Not to mention, who leaves boxes sitting on the stove? Pets or not, that seems like an accident waiting to happen. Glad nothing major occured but yikes.

 

[iFunk]

If a dog is capable of turning on and igniting a stove, then questions need to be asked about the owners themselves more than anything.

Unless safety laws are drastically different in that country, then it would be physically impossible for the dog to do this with any cooker released in the last 10-15 years or more.

This might sound crazy but I can definitely see this happening. I routinely place our grocery bags on our stove (I won't be doing this anymore). One day, not long ago, I had probably 5 bags in each hand. I somehow hit the knob on our flattop stove and turned it on with one of the bags. Within a second I smelled burning plastic and quickly turned it off. We also have a Golden Doodle who is ~100 pounds and although he doesn't put his paws up on the counter or stove I could see him doing this. If a dog of his size hit the knob just right I could see him turning it on.

We had these on our old stove when our son was an infant/toddler. I guess I'll buy another set to be safe. https://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Stove-Covers-Count/dp/B005XTCMSQ

Glad no one was hurt!

 

[victorvictoria]

Lord how many hateful comments here. Accidents happen. I had a similar thing happen to me - our dog is always very curious about things in the countertop and while we were out he climbed and turned on the touch controlled stove top with his paws by accident and caused a fire. I think the point of this story is just to a) remind people to not leave anything on, or near the stove top and b) showcase the safety features of the homepod. And yes smoke alarms are loud but if you have sound/fire proof doors, a house that is not built with paper walls and multiple floors it can easily happen that you don’t hear it.

And train your dog not to climb on things. Watch Cesar Millan's "Better human, better dog."

 

[zorinlynx]

This might sound crazy but I can definitely see this happening. I routinely place our grocery bags on our stove (I won't be doing this anymore). One day, not long ago, I had probably 5 bags in each hand. I somehow hit the knob on our flattop stove and turned it on with one of the bags. Within a second I smelled burning plastic and quickly turned it off. We also have a Golden Doodle who is ~100 pounds and although he doesn't put his paws up on the counter or stove I could see him doing this. If a dog of his size hit the knob just right I could see him turning it on.

We had these on our old stove when our son was an infant/toddler. I guess I'll buy another set to be safe. https://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Stove-Covers-Count/dp/B005XTCMSQ

Glad no one was hurt!

I'm actually amazed that there are stoves with the controls on the front like that. Not only a dog but a small child could also casually turn them on. All the stoves I've had, dating back to when I was a kid in the 80s, have the controls above the burners on the back, much harder for a child or animal to get to them.

Either way it's a bad idea to have anything flammable on top of the stove.

 

[deevey]

I'm actually amazed that there are stoves with the controls on the front like that. Not only a dog but a small child could also casually turn them on. All the stoves I've had, dating back to when I was a kid in the 80s, have the controls above the burners on the back, much harder for a child or animal to get to them.

Either way it's a bad idea to have anything flammable on top of the stove.

Try accessing those control when you have an oil pan fire though (been there)

Most stoves tops you see in stores and new apts and houses these days are integrated With controls beside, or front.

 

[zorinlynx]

Try accessing those control when you have an oil pan fire

First step with an oil pan fire is to throw a wet towel over the pan to put it out. THEN turn off the burner.

 

[bellis1]

If a dog is capable of turning on and igniting a stove, then questions need to be asked about the owners themselves more than anything.

Unless safety laws are drastically different in that country, then it would be physically impossible for the dog to do this with any cooker released in the last 10-15 years or more.

I’ve got a new electric range and a dumb dog. I’ve learned not to leave anything on burners.

 

[ececlv]

Where's the Climate section of the Home app? Or is this for specific devices? I only have the original HomePod and AppleTV if that's relevant.

How to Use the Temperature and Humidity Sensors on HomePod and HomePod Mini

In January 2023, Apple released a HomePod 16.3 software update that adds humidity and temperature sensing to the second-generation HomePod and all...

www.macrumors.com

 

[ececlv]

So it says homepods dont detect heat, and if the smoke alarms weren't working like you claimed, how exactly did the homepod detect it then? (since it listens for the sound that clearly wasn't there). This whole thing seems strange (not saying it didn't happen). Not to mention, who leaves boxes sitting on the stove? Pets or not, that seems like an accident waiting to happen. Glad nothing major occured but yikes.

It does detect heat

 

[genovelle]

Though I don't think it's a publicly documented feature, it does seem feasible to me that the newer HomePods which have temperature sensors built in, might notify you if the temperature they're sensing is way too high, even if it's just as a "this might break your HomePod" thing.

Yes there is a feature that monitors the internal temperature of the device. There are lots of features that Apple doesn’t promote to keep marketing simple. Another possibility is that their smoke detector was connected to their home network and the HomePod is generally the hub. In this case it was notified by another device of the heat or smoke and sent the alert to the phones on the network

 

[thebart]

Let the dulcet tone of Siri wake you in case of fire rather than an ear splitting alarm. We think you'll love it!

 

[Premium1]

It does detect heat

According to apple it doesn't. The only alerts are due to it hearing a smoke/CO2 sensor going off. It has a temp but doesn't alert to that. Still doesn't change the fact this story is sus as can be.

 

[iFunk]

I'm actually amazed that there are stoves with the controls on the front like that. Not only a dog but a small child could also casually turn them on. All the stoves I've had, dating back to when I was a kid in the 80s, have the controls above the burners on the back, much harder for a child or animal to get to them.

Either way it's a bad idea to have anything flammable on top of the stove.

I concur. We had the same style in our home when I was a child. Thank for the comment!

 

[1561147]

And train your dog not to climb on things. Watch Cesar Millan's "Better human, better dog."

Bruh 🤣 Don’t recall asking for dog training advice from the mac rumors forum. He is trained. This happened when I moved him into my new home 4 years ago. But thanks for the irrelevant comment. For you I suggest betterhelp.com it might help your unresolved trauma and projection 👍

 

[quietstormSD]

Wait... what? Wouldn't the smoke alarm alert the owners? I'm just so confused here.

 

[Coffee50]

While some are saying the camera was pointed at the stove...I do think it should be mentioned the wider frame shows that it appears to be pointed at the entrance / door. I've seen media outlets show a centered close up of the dog & stove, whereas others show a wider frame of the camera.

 

[sunman42]

A good example of why you don’t put things on the stove top.

Who does? What level of brain damage does it take to do so, especially overnight?
Oh wait, the story says this took place in Colorado. A lot of smart, capable people there, but also a striking number of sheer airheads. (I served a seven-year sentence in graduate school there many decades ago, and I thought then that it was just my town.)

 

[mattoruu]

Glad to hear that no one was injured and all are safe.

There was an injury. One of the homeowners was transported to a local hospital for smoke inhalation. It doesn’t say if homeowner is okay now. I assume the homeowners is still alive at least (otherwise the fire department’s Facebook post probably would have mentioned that).

 

[teh_hunterer]

Saw a similar (or same?) news report last week, complete with a photo of the dog standing at the stove, and some white items on the stovetop.

There was photo/video evidence.

Yes but we still don't know if the dog did it on purpose or accidentally.