electric blanket left on to keep pets warm

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Weekend fire caused by electric blanket left on to keep pets warm
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.11.2006

An electric blanket left unattended started a fire Saturday night that burned a house north of Downtown, causing $100,000 worth of damage and displacing two brothers, a Tucson fire official said Monday.

No one was injured in the fire, which was reported just before 6:30 p.m. Saturday when several people called 911 after seeing smoke in the 100 block of West Adams Street, near North Stone Avenue and West Drachman Street, said Capt. Paul McDonough, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman.

Firefighters pulled a cat and a dog out of the fire, which were the only ones in the house, McDonough said.

The burned cat was taken to a veterinarian and later died, said one of the home's owners, 34-year-old Kenny Stewart. The dog -- a small mixed-breed named Jack -- suffered from smoke inhalation but was OK, Stewart said.

Stewart and his brother, 27-year-old Brad Stewart, left the electric blanket on to keep their pets warm but it ended up costing the cat its life, McDonough said.
"It's just a bittersweet irony," Kenny Stewart said, adding that he'll never buy an electric blanket again. He said he purchased the blanket from a yard sale and it appeared to be brand new.

"It's going to be a much more somber Christmas than expected," he said.

People should not leave electric blankets unattended and they should never purchase a used one because they need to follow the manufacturer's instructions on how to use the blanket safely, McDonough said.