Winnipeg woman says dog started fire by turning on stove under recall notice — twice

A Winnipeg woman says she never imagined her dog could start a fire on her stove, but now she’s warning the public that’s just what happened — and she says she didn’t find out a safety recall had been issued for her appliance until after the fire.

Michelle Burkowski had new Samsung appliances, including a range, installed in May 2024, and says she was initially very pleased with them.

But one day in May 2025, she came home to find her house filled with smoke and a fire burning on the range.

“I ran into the kitchen to check on the dog, and that’s when I noticed that there was a book on fire on top of the stove. And of course, I shouldn’t have left the book on the stove,” she said in an interview.

She put the fire out and made sure her dog, Buster, was all right.

That’s when she realized Buster must have jumped up and turned on one of the knobs for a stove element, which were on the front of the appliance.

When she told some friends what happened, they told her Samsung made covers for the knobs to prevent them from being unintentionally turned on.

“I started to do a bit of research on it. That’s when I went online and I saw that Samsung actually had a recall for this exact problem,” Burkowski said. 

Health Canada issued a safety recall alert in August 2024 for certain Samsung electric ranges due to a fire hazard, noting both people and pets could “accidentally activate the front-mounted knobs on the ranges.”

The notice says owners should contact Samsung Canada to get a free set of knob locks or covers. It also says people with Wi-Fi enabled ranges can turn on notifications on a Samsung app to get alerts when a cooktop burner is turned on. 

Burkowski says after the stove fire, she removed the knobs from her Samsung range to keep the dog from accidentally turning the elements on.

But that wasn’t the only fire she had with the appliance.

About a month later, while she was at work, there was a second fire, after she believes the dog somehow activated the oven switch.

She said she had left some dry goods — chips or crackers — in the oven that caught fire.

“I’s easy for people to judge and say I shouldn’t have done that … and I get it, I understand I shouldn’t have done that, in hindsight,” she said, but she puts some items in the oven to keep them away from her dog and cat. 

“I was completely shocked. I’d never thought in a million years that a dog would be able to turn the oven on,” said Burkowski.

“I love Buster, he is a great dog, but like, he’s not the smartest dog.… So, in my head, he shouldn’t be able to turn an oven on in that way, just by jumping on it. And if he can do that, then certainly a kid can.”

In a June 2024 case highlighted by the fire department in Colorado Springs, Colo., a dog put its feet on the front of a cooking range and ignited a fire.

A home security video posted by the fire department shows boxes on the stove catching on fire. 

WATCH | Dog starts fire on stove: 

Dog ignites fire on electric stove

Ashley Franco, a spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Fire Department, said the homeowner provided the video to help warn others about the issue.

“Kitchen fires are one of the top causes of fires in Colorado Springs, and a lot of them are due to people leaving their stove on with food or even flammable objects on it,” she said in an email to CBC.

People who have pets or children should think about what appliances would be safest for their situation, she said, suggesting that stove models with knobs at the back would be a better option.

The Health Canada Samsung recall in August 2024 came two weeks after the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall notice, which involved about 1.1. million Samsung units sold since 2013.

Samsung had received over 300 reports of “unintentional activation of the front-mounted knobs by humans or pets,” resulting in 250 fires — at least 18 of which “caused extensive property damage” — and 40 injuries, according to the U.S. commission’s notice.

Health Canada says that as of the end of July 2025, it had received 110 reports of unintentional activation of range elements involving the recalled Samsung ranges, thought to be due to the control knobs being activated too easily. Among the 110 reports, Health Canada says 62 mentioned a fire and four involved an injury.

At the time of the recall, Health Canada noted Samsung reported that about 326,250 of the ranges had been sold in Canada between 2013 and August 2024.

WATCH | Owner says dog started 2 kitchen fires by turning range on: 

How Buster the dog started 2 kitchen fires

A spokesperson for Samsung declined to comment, but in a release at the time of the 2024 recall, Samsung Electronics Canada acknowledged “a fire hazard if flammable objects are left on top of the range.”

The release said Samsung Canada would provide customers with a set of free knob locks, or covers, to prevent the range from accidentally being turned on.

Burkowski says she requested a set of knob covers after she learned about the recall. A package was shipped and delivered, but when she got home, it was gone, she said, leading her to believe it was stolen.

Samsung told her she could not order another set of the knob covers, she said.

She also said she doesn’t know why she didn’t get a notification about the safety recall when it was issued in 2024. She didn’t register her purchase of the range oven with Samsung, she said.

But Consumers Council of Canada executive director Ken Whitehurst says some people worry about privacy, and what will happen to their personal information and data when they register with a manufacturer.

He thinks there could be far more proactive systems of registration for products that are under warranty.

“At least with major appliances, the sellers, the retailers, actually have all the [buyer’s] information. They have it for delivery purposes and all kinds of things,” he said.

“Maybe it should be a legal requirement that they simply register the sale so that the consumer will be informed if there’s a product safety problem. Why is it the consumer’s responsibility at all?”

In addition to the Samsung ranges, Health Canada also issued a recall notice earlier this year for certain models of LG electric ranges, warning the front-mounted knobs on those models could also be activated by accidental contact from humans or pets.

LG Electronics Canada said in a notice on its website that in co-operation with Health Canada, it was making a voluntary recall of certain ranges with front-mounted knobs. 

The notice said people with affected models should contact LG directly for a free warning label, which “reminds consumers to use LG’s lock out/control lock function … to disable activation of the heating elements when the range is not in use.”