*Please* be careful with heating equipment! (sad news for animal lovers)

[Skywatcher]

Just heard about this on a St. Louis radio station.

Alton Telegraph

BRIGHTON – Several dogs were killed in a fire Wednesday morning that began in a small building where they were being kept at a newly started kennel business in rural Brighton.

The fire broke out about 10 a.m. at the Nature’s Best kennel business, which is at a residence off of Lincoln Street in Macoupin County. Lincoln is off of Miles Station Road, approximately 5 miles east of the intersection with Illinois Route 111, just north of Brighton.

A Macoupin County sheriff’s deputy at the scene, who asked not to be named, said the fire apparently started from a heat lamp that had been put in the small kennel building and turned on to keep the dogs warm.

“There were quite a few dogs in there that the owners weren’t able to save. They got some of the other dogs out safely, though,” the deputy said.

The small kennel building burned to the ground. At one point, the flames were high enough to melt a portion of the siding on a mobile home next door. The home, where the business owners live, did not catch fire, however.

“They were pretty lucky. It could have been a lot worse. These mobile homes can go up so quick sometimes. If the fire just gets close to them, they start to melt right away,” the sheriff’s deputy said.

[Ice_Wolf]

That’s devastating.