A dog in Zelzate is being held responsible for causing a house fire in the East Flemish town after it chewed the battery of an e-cigarette to bits. After extinguishing the blaze firefighters found the electronic cigarette in the dog's basket. The fire was caused after the dog bit the vape battery to pieces.
It was on Tuesday, just before noon, that fire-fighters were called to a blaze at a house in Zelzate. The fire was limited to one room, but if unchecked could have easily got out of control. ‘Fortunately, the dog owner had installed cameras in her house that she used to watch the dog and saw what was happening,’ explains fire captain Steven Van Vooren.
According to the fire brigade, the fire started in and around the dog's basket. ‘That's where the broken vape was. The battery may have ignited. The cushion started to burn, and afterwards the furniture too.’
The house is temporarily uninhabitable due to damage caused by the smoke. Luckily the home and dog owner and the dog remained unscathed.
More call outs triggered by batteries
Fire-fighters are seeing an increase in the number of incidents involving batteries. ‘Yes, we do see more and more,’ Capt. Van Vooren confirms.
‘Recently, for example, there was an incident with a bicycle battery that was charging on a carpet. A fire started. The owner threw the battery into the hall. The hall then also started burning.’
Here the vape was not charging, but that could just as easily cause a fire. ‘If you throw away a battery in the residual waste, fire can also often start during disposal, when the battery is crushed. Vapes do not belong in household waste,’ Capt. Van Vooren concludes.