Hot Dog: HomePod saves home and pooch from housefire

Apple's HomePod saved a family home from a potentially fatal fire, caused by a very curious dog.

On June 26th at 4:43 a.m, the Colorado Springs Fire Department was called out to attend a housefire. However, on arrival, they discovered a fire in the kitchen had already been extinguished by the homeowners.

In a video posted to Facebook, the CSFD shows security footage from inside the room, showing that the fire was caused by the owner's dog. The curious dog got on his hind legs to investigate the boxes on a stove top.

It accidentally turned on one of the heating elements below the boxes, and walked away.

Later, on the camera feed the stove top is shown to be on fire. Flames reached the ceiling.

One homeowner was taken to a local hospital over smoke inhalation. No other injuries to humans nor dogs were reported.

While unusual in its creation, the fire was thwarted earlier than it took fire crews to arrive in part because of the HomePod. The homeowners say they were alerted by a critical notice on their Apple devices, allegedly warning of "high heat."

It is more probable that the notice was actually part of a feature introduced in early 2023. The feature uses onboard microphones on the second-generation HomePod and the HomePod mini to listen out for smoke and CO2 detectors, triggering an alert on user devices.

The CSFD advises that this serves as a reminder to have working smoke alarms inside and outside every sleeping area, and on every floor of the house. Also, to ensure all combustibles are away from your stovetop or oven, and always know at least two ways out of every room in the event of a fire.