HomePod Saves Family's Life After Dog Starts Kitchen Fire

[Osxguy]

True story saved our Ducks in the brooder. We have an original HomePod in the garage for listening to music while working on the cars and we also have the brooder out there. One of the baby ducklings knocked off the brooder and we received an alarm notification in the home app. We couldn't figure out what the alarm was from until I said... Check out in the garage.. Sure enough the alarm was the brooder below temp.. Sooo its pretty cool tech ...

 

[coolfactor]

"the family's dog accidentally turned on the stove" bit of an assumption. Did anyone follow up with the dog to find out if it really was an accident or if the dog did it on purpose?

Saw a similar (or same?) news report last week, complete with a photo of the dog standing at the stove, and some white items on the stovetop.

There was photo/video evidence.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

The dog was trained to making morning coffee and scrambled eggs for breakfast for beloved owners…

 

[coolfactor]

Toddlers are even more likely to turn stove knobs.

This is why controls for stove burners should be on top of the surface, not front-mounted. And if they are front-mounted, they should have toddler-proof covers.

They should have a deadman's switch like electric lawnmowers do. Need to hold down one button while pulling in the lever, or turning a knob in the case of a stove.

 

[coolfactor]

The dog was trained to making morning coffee and scrambled eggs for breakfast for beloved owners…

But instead the family went scrambling for safety!

 

[GimmeDatApple]

Though I don't think it's a publicly documented feature, it does seem feasible to me that the newer HomePods which have temperature sensors built in, might notify you if the temperature they're sensing is way too high, even if it's just as a "this might break your HomePod" thing.

Featuse doesn’t exist, or would have long since been discovered in Homepod OS code review.

 

[MrSegundus]

My fire alarm does the same thing. 🤦‍♂️

 

[Powerbooky]

Though I don't think it's a publicly documented feature, it does seem feasible to me that the newer HomePods which have temperature sensors built in, might notify you if the temperature they're sensing is way too high, even if it's just as a "this might break your HomePod" thing.

I'm not aware of such feature, but Mac and iPhone's do have overheating notification before turning off.
But it is possible to create a rule in the HomeApp that triggers something when the HomePod sensor is above 40ºC/105ºF for example. Of course only when the HomePod is not in direct sunlight every day and the fire hasn't burned down the network yet.

Fortunately, there are fire- & smoke detectors that work with HomeKit.

 

[Wasp14]

Saw a similar (or same?) news report last week, complete with a photo of the dog standing at the stove, and some white items on the stovetop.

There was photo/video evidence.

This is that same story. The owners left cardboard boxes on the stovetop (maybe with some food still left inside?), the dog jumped up for it and accidentally turned on the stove, setting them on fire.

 

[ChrisA]

Why didn’t the smoke alarms wake them up?

my guess is that the smokedetectors were not interconnected. So only the kitchen detector went on and the bedrooms might be too far away.

Where I live houses constructed in the last few decades must have the allarms interconnected with a hard waired connection so that if one goes off, they all do.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Glad that to read that no one was hurt due to the family sidekick.

 

[Plutonius]

The story sounds somewhat suspicious. Just another thing to blame on dogs .

 

[tennisproha]

Wonder how many people died hearing “Sure, here’s TikTok by Kesha” while asking the HomePod to call emergency services.

This is more believable than whatever that story is claiming. HomePod is hopeless.

 

[Rradcircless]

I'm glad the sound recognition alerts indeed work, they've even alerted me to the smoke alarm a few times - though they were alerted by excessive smoke from the fry pan or the griller.

On the other hand, I'm quite disappointed that fall detection on my Apple Watch series 7 does not seem to work. Thank heaven I've never needed the feature but one time on a walk, I decided to drop dead onto some grass and my watch was completely unperturbed. If I knew it worked, I would say it with my chest that an Apple Watch could have saved my uncle's life and perhaps in the future my own parents'.

 

[Rradcircless]

This is more believable than whatever that story is claiming. HomePod is hopeless.

Truly. The same commands always return different stuff-ups.

 

[Rradcircless]

Everything about this story sounds like it was made up by a 5 year old.
It’s preposterous

I fully believe a dog could start a fire with its sheer carelessness.

 

[dannyyankou]

This feature could be very important for when you’re outside the house, but they were inside the house. I don't know if any of you had a smoke alarm go off in your house, but you hear it. And it’s very loud. There's no way they didn't hear it first before their phone was alerted.

 

[anthogag]

The family was teaching the dog how to cook. Leaving packages on a stovetop is really outrageous.

 

[BP9906]

I wonder if they have interconnected smoke alarms 🧐 that’s not new tech and you can buy wireless ones for to make them interconnected.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Bad dog, BAD!

 

[bousozoku]

A good example of why you don’t put things on the stove top.

The dog probably warned them several times and then, was exhausted by the stupidity of the humans and decided to make an example out of the situation.

 

[BugHunter]

So many internet slueths that are making weird accusations.

* How did a dog turn on a stove
Watch the video. Owners left boxes on the stove, dog investigated, activated the old stove that doesn't have modern safety features.

* It's not the dog's fault if the owners left stuff ontop of the oven.
I don't think anyone has seriously accused the dog. The blame is on the owners and a bit of bad old oven design.

* How did the notification not wake them up but the fire alarm did?
Fire alarm was in the kitchen, family was sleeping in the bedroom next to their phones I imagine, maybe if given a few more seconds the fire alarm would have woke them up anyway.

* Intersting that this was all filmed...
If it was an insurance fraud attempt, it's a really odd detail to say that the HomePod was the one that woke them up. Also given the video of the dog, I mean, props to the owners if they managed to train their dog to burn their house down.

* Must be from Apple's marketing team.
I know people think corporations are comic book evil, but people don't risk burning their house down to advertise a feature of a speaker. (Corporations are evil, but real world evil where they put profit over sustainability etc). Same way Apple didn't leak early iPhones on purpose based on the legal and personal repurcussions that the leakers went through. Same way Will Smith didn't slap Chris for the sake of Emmy ratings.

 

[GrayFlannel]

We don’t understand how it happened but we’re taking credit for it.

 

[MacRumorUser78]

They do have a temp sensor. This is from the Climate section in the Home app, tap on Temperature, then select the device. HomePod mini here:

Where's the Climate section of the Home app? Or is this for specific devices? I only have the original HomePod and AppleTV if that's relevant.

 

[mattoruu]

I’m sure there are a lot of decent people commenting on Rumors, but the number of absolutely asinine comments on this story is, well, really impressive.

The HomePod can listen for smoke alarms and other things. It’s an accessibility feature. People sometimes sleep through alarms. Older homes may not have working, connected alarms. I had to pay an electrician to replace my 25 yo connected alarms.

If one doesn’t know how something works, and I’m just spitballing here, if one doesn’t know how something works, perhaps to avoid sounding like a [censored] one should either A) avoid commenting, B) investigate further, or C) rethink life choices and live off grid for a few years.

One more point, my Samsung stove has dials right in the front. My crazy pup lit the stove by jumping up. We have to pull the dials off and store them in a drawer.

(Furthermore, it’s a Samsung stove, not an “American” stove, so anti-American comments wouldn’t make sense in this context. Save them for another asinine comment.)

I was going to make a joke about how it seems like you are the homeowner (and dog owner) in the article. And that’s why you are so angry at everybody commenting about how you left a cardboard box on your stovetop.

Why did you leave a cardboard box on your stovetop?!?! That’s so dangerous!!! Please be more careful.

I understand you are embarrassed that your dog almost burned down your home, but don’t direct your anger at the MacRumors Forum. We didn’t cause the fire hazard.

But if I made that joke, I think you would get very angry at me. So I won’t make that joke.