Designer dog burns down kitchen
A pet dog caused £30,000 of damage when it turned on its owner's cooker and burnt down the kitchen.
Skylar, a three-year-old 'goldendoodle', apparently started a kitchen fire when she tried to jump on the stove to get left-over pizza.
It happened after her owner Fred Haines left his home in Naperville, Illinois, to go to work, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The designer pooch, a cross between a golden retreiver and a poodle, is believed to have switched on a hob which ignited the cardboard underneath the pizza.
The flames spread to a nearby plastic cutting board, and then to the cabinets above the stove, Naperville fire officials said.
Haines, 32, said he had been running five minutes late: "I didn't do my typical sweep through the kitchen to make sure Skylar couldn't get at anything," he admitted.
Firefighters broke down a door after neighbours raised the alarm and rescued the unconscious Skylar. Paramedics used oxygen to revive her.
"Skylar's fur is white, but when I saw her that day, she was literally a black dog from the fire's soot and ash," Haines said.
