POST FALLS — Tuesday started out an ordinary day for Jessica Thomassen. She dropped off her 4-year-old son at her mother’s place.  

She and her dog, Harley, were home in her apartment for a couple of hours before she went to work at her business, Faded and Confused Barber Shop. 

She hadn’t been at work for very long, however, when she received a call from her neighbor that her smoke alarm was going off. 

“I left work to check and opened my door, and that’s when all the smoke came out,” Thomassen said. “When I opened the door, it was just a wall of smoke.”    

Harley ran out of the smoke-filled apartment, and Thomassen called 911 for help. 

Eventually, it was determined that the 12-year-old German-shepherd, heeler mix had started the kitchen fire. 

“What happened was, apparently, my dog tried to get the metal food container off the counter and knocked it into the burner and somehow turned the burner on,” Thomassen said, calling the fire a “super freak accident.” 

Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Chris Way said it's rare for a pet to cause a fire, but it has come up in the past.

"We’ve had one where a dog knocked over a candle. We’ve had one where a dog hit a stove," Way said.

The fire itself was out by the time firefighters arrived, but there is a good deal of smoke damage in the apartment. 

The Red Cross came and deemed the apartment uninhabitable, and her family is currently staying at a hotel while they search for a new place to stay.  

There is a GoFundMe to help the Thomassen family recover from the fire at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jessica-and-family-after-house-fire.

    Harley the dog