Cats Starting House fires in S. Korea

[tomturbomatic]

Seoul, South Korea (CNN)Pet owners in South Korea have been warned to stay on their guard after more than 100 fires were started by cats over the past three years, according to fire officials in the capital Seoul.
A statement Thursday from the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Department said cats caused a total of 107 house fires between January 2019 and November this year.
The cats are believed to have started the fires by switching on electric stoves, the department said. Cats can turn electric stoves on by jumping on touch-sensitive buttons -- and once overheated, the appliances can catch fire.

Four people were injured in the fires, just over half of which started while pet owners were out, the statement added.

"Cat-related fires are continuing to occur recently," said Chung Gyo-chul, an official from the department. "We advise households with pets to pay extra attention as fire could spread widely when no one is at home."

The department also advised cat owners to remove flammable objects, like paper towels, from the stove. It suggested using an electric stove with an automatic lock function to prevent the risk of fires.
According to the department, pet-related house fires are on the rise in Seoul.

Between January and September 2019, 31 such fires occurred -- a significant increase from just eight in 2016, the department said. Most of the fires were caused by cats, it added.

And the problem isn't limited to South Korea.
According to the American Humane Association, pets are responsible for about 1,000 house fires in the United States every year. The association encourages owners to put covers on or remove stove knobs as a safety measure and says owners should discourage their pets from interacting with a stove.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/asia/south-korea-seoul-cats-house-fires-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[ea56]

Well, I used to think that my Orange Tabbie cat, Nookie was bad for pissing on the stove. But at least he didn’t burn the house down! He was finally cured of this bad habit when he jumped on the stove and backed his ass up to a burner that I’d just turned off and burned his tookis, that was the end of that!

Another good reason for KNOBS to control the burners and oven on stoves.

Eddie

 

[circlew]

That reminds me of what Danemodsandy called the GE range pushbutton controls located at the sides of the cooktop on certain models - PyroKitty. Evidently cats caused fires on more than one occasion by stepping on the buttons. The newer touch panel ranges like the GE at the church I belong to require multiple steps to turn anything on.

One of my nephews had a girlfriend with a cat I called Crazycat. One evening it went into their apartment's bathroom and jumped onto the countertop, knocking over a candle. That caused towels hanging by the sink to catch fire. The automatic sprinkler in the bathroom was activated, extinguishing the fire by the time they looked in there. The fire department arrived in a few minutes, and shut the water off after determining the fire was out. Very little damage was done, other than wet carpet, but Crazycat wasn't happy about being soaking wet. My nephew split up with said GF soon after that, so don't know if that cat caused anymore trouble.

 

[appnut]

Member Laundromat (Chuck) literally had this happen at one of his houses and the house burned down. Was a GE range with the pushbuttons on the surface. He'd left to run errands and such and kitty hopped around and turned on the burner(s).

 

[ozzie908]

And there is another good reason for Induction hobs

As no pan means no heat on the hob and it will turn it self off again.

Having taking a pair of cats after the death of a dear friend one of which loves nothing more than to walk over all the counters and you can see his paw prints on the glass of the hob, Am now in the habit of wiping all surfaces with bleach in the water to sanitise after his midnight meanderings....
Oh and why can't those folks with an electric stove with heating rings turn them off at the wall when not in use??

Eddie I loved your story about the peeing cat....

Austin

 

[statomatic]

Well that shouldn't happen with an old range that has hard to turn rotary switches, that also prevent children using them.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You know, if you put pieces of waxed paper along the edge of the counters, the cat will slide off in a most undignified way when it attempts to jump up. I like cats, but I don't want their filthy paws on the kitchen counters.

 

[iej]

This is why I like the big isolation switches we have on the wall. Nobody ever leaves a stove powered up and unattended.

 

[circlew]

When I worked at Steak 'n Shake the summer of '78, the electric cooking equipment was on a time switch. It would come on in the morning, an hour before opening, and since they closed at 11 PM, it would shut off at 10:50.

I've thought about installing wall switches to control the kitchen countertop receptacles. A switch with a pilot light would be useful. For a range, a circuit breaker panel could be installed in the kitchen. One with a main breaker could control all kitchen circuits except refrigeration and lighting.

As far as cats in the kitchen, ours got on the table once, and only once. He proceeded to eat the tuna salad we were going to have for dinner. My mom picked him up, and tossed him off the porch into the yard. He wasn't supposed to be in the house anyway, but ran in when the guests arrived.

 

[gizmo]

Isolation switches

These are now required on new installations in Australia. Not sure how long, maybe 10 years?

 

They must have been required for longer in New Zealand, when we visit there almost everywhere has shutoff switches on the wall next to the stove or cooktop. In Australia is is still unusual except in new homes. Usually AU and NZ standards are the same but there are variations.

 

We were looking at getting a new stove for my Sister-in-law, who lives in our old house. There is a shut off switch on the wall next to the stove, we had wiring upgraded when we moved out and it was a new thing then, I don't think it was required at the time but our electrician is a New Zealander and he recommended it. The new stove we were going to install has a built in digital clock so that would have been annoying as she switches off the stove at the wall when not using it, would have had to reset the clock each time. In the end she decided she wanted to keep the old stove.

 

[gizmo]

Cat mishaps

As I have said here earlier, our big cat Casper, now deceased, flooded our place two or three times by turning on the tap (a single lever flickmixer tap) and turning the outlet so it put water off the sink onto the bench. Once or twice in the kitchen, once in the laundry. We replaced both taps with ones with a limited swivel, so it can't direct water off the sink. (Kitchen one now only turns 90 degrees, the laundry one is fixed.)

 

Our new cat doesn't jump up on the benchtops at all, which is a first for us. He likes floors, sofas and laps. If ever a cat just wanted to be a good boy, it is this guy, Simba the rescue ragdoll. He was 10 years old when we got him and he is a real gentleman cat.

 

[iej]

They’ve always been required for fixed appliances here, going right back to the 1920s, similar to the U.K. regs in that regard.

There’s a sleek looking double-pole switch on the wall, or in an accessible location within a couple of meters of any cooking appliance that cannot be easily unplugged.

We also require switches for built in appliances (dishwashers, fridges, hoods etc) and all-pole (usually 3 (live, neutral and switched live) for bathroom fans.

The logic and rule is basically that you should be able to easily, locally fully isolate any appliance, whether hardwired or not.

Smaller hardwired devices would usually be connected through a fused, double pole switched connection unit, which looks very much like a light switch plate with a slot for a 13amp fuse and a flex (cord) exit (or through the back if hidden). That’s often used for built in appliances, but also things like central heating pumps, heated towel rails, hand dryers or anything <3000W that’s direct connected, without a plug.

Plug & socket connections for things like extractor hoods tend not to be used much. It’s usually a concealed connection and an accessible switch near by.

It does raise a question about controls on heating appliances though. I wonder what’s required in South Korea?

Seems EU safety legislation requires an unlock step before you can just power up a cooking surface - you will typically have to press and hold power, followed by holding a button on one or the zones. They don’t usually power up too easily by just brushing on them. I still don’t think that’s enough though.[this post was last edited: 1/1/2022-19:21]

 

[norgeway]

Well

I could turn every unit on on my range and leave for a week, I never ever leave anything sitting on my range to catch on fire nor in the oven either, I have seen people have tupperware and hand towells etc laying on their stove not at my house

 

[iej]

Mines induction, so unless the cat has developed a penchant for dragging frying pans out of the drawer, all it would do is produce a magnetic field until it decided there's no pot to induce.

 

[repairguy]

The only time I’ve ever seen a electrical disconnect by a range in this area was at an early 1900’s farm house that had a late forties or early fifties 40” Westinghouse in the kitchen. It had an old disconnect probably the same age of the range on the wall beside it and the voltage was removed from the range when it wasn’t in use.

 

[paulg]

I saw it happen…

And I am a Certified Fire and Explosion investigator.
We have a glass (Ceran) cooktop with touch-controls. The range was off and the lock function was ON.
The cat jumped up on the counter, went over to the range and sat down on it. I heard the beeps and the range was now unlocked.
The beeps startled the cat who walked a step forward and stepped on the burner touch switch. This activated the switch. One more step by the cat and the burner would now be ON. I took the cat off the range just before.
I went to a conference with other investigators and was at a table with another major manufacturer. I mentioned the event to him but he remained mum on the subject. Hmmm. What did he know?
Knobs are a good idea on ranges provided they are at the back of the range. Dogs trying to get food off of the counter have been known to jump on, paw at and activate range knobs that are at the front of the range.
As far as my original range, my “fix” was to find a trivet that covered the touch switches without activating them. I would then pull the breaker when we were on vacation. That range failed a few years back and we replaced it with a newer version. It is more difficult to start accidentally.

 

[brisnat81]

In AU, part of the requirement is that you either need a visible disconnect or a circuit breaker that you can lockout for hard wired appliances. IE the person working on the appliance needs to know that the power stays off.

The other reason is that if you ever have a stovetop fire, you can remove the heat source without needing to reach over the stove, although in a lot of early installations the switch was right over the Hob. Now the switch needs to be to one side.

Our wall ovens have 16 amp plugs, so the plug is the disconnect, the cooktop has a wall switch within 1.5m.

The three Miele cooktops we’ve had are all pretty quick to detect multiple sensor presses and generate an error rather than turning on. Our current cooktop has two steps to turn on, power and then burner setting, Jon Charles had the exact same cooktop in the US and you had to turn the power on, select the burner by pressing 0 and then set the power level.

 

[maytag85]

GE put the push buttons in the hood over the stove in the mid to late 60’s since that’s how a friend in NC GE cooktop is setup like that. Definitely kitty proof since they are above the countertop

 

[iej]

There's a big thing here about being able to isolate the appliance without having to reach over it or across it too, so the switch is usually adjacent to it.

They're flush switches and in most kitchens tend to be fairly fancy flat plates and blended into the decor.
Old "cooker control units" were fairly chunky looking, often surface mounted devices.