Be kind to your pets or they just may set your house on fire.
Case in point ? At 1:31 p.m. Friday, June 11 Oxford firefighters were dispatched to 458 Kirkwood (inside the Parkhurst Estates mobile home park) to extinguish a fire started by a pet cat.
According to Fire Chief Jack LeRoy, it all started when the cat knocked a plastic wreath off a bathroom wall onto a lit candle sitting on the vanity.
The candle lit the wreath on fire, which in turn began melting the plastic bathroom sink, LeRoy said.
Fortunately, the fire also melted a plastic water line leading to the sink causing a leak which kept the fire under control and contained until firefighters got there, the chief said.
No one was home at the time of the incident.
Firefighters had the small fire under control by 1:40 p.m. LeRoy estimated the fire caused $2,000 in damage to the home and $1,500 in damage to its contents.
The vanity and sink will have to be replaced. The bathroom suffered smoke and water damage and there was smoke damage throughout the home.
No injuries, neither human nor feline, were reported.
Because the fire was accidental, the cat, who’s name is being withheld, will not be charged with arson.