JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) – A pit bull left home alone jumped on top of a stove, turned on a burner and started a fire that caused about $2,000 in damage, officials said.

“It’s kind of a freak accident,” said Fire Department Capt. Jim Reuther.

The dog named Satchel climbed on the stove and stepped on a push-button control to turned on a burner, said the dog’s owner, Josh Larson. The burner ignited something plastic on the stove top.

“I just can’t believe it,” Larson said. “It’s just unreal.”

Firefighters extinguished the blaze on the stove top. No other residents of the apartment building were affected.

Larson, who was at work at the time, said his main concern was Satchel.

The dog ran off but was found a few blocks away about five hours later, shaking with fear.

Rescuer sentenced to night in woods

PAINESVILLE, Ohio (AP) – An animal rescuer who abandoned 35 kittens in two parks has been sentenced to a night in the woods without food or shelter.

Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti, known for handing out unusual punishments, sentenced Michelle M. Murray to the spend the cold night alone when she begins her 15-day jail sentence next week.

“How would you like to be dumped off at a Metropark late at night, spend the night listening to the coyotes coming upon you, listening to the raccoons around you in the dark night, and sit out there in the cold not knowing where you’re going to get your next meal, not knowing when you are going to be rescued?” the judge asked. “That’s what you’re going to do.”

Murray, 25, pleaded guilty last month to abandoning domestic animals, a second-degree misdemeanor. The kittens were recovered but many had upper respiratory infections and nine died.

She apologized and has previously said she was experiencing family problems when she dumped the kittens.

Murray must report to jail Wednesday where a park ranger will drop her off at a remote location.

Cicconetti previously sentenced a man who called an officer a pig to stand on a city sidewalk for two hours in a pen next to a 350-pound hog along with a sign reading, “This is not a police officer.”

Teens charged with 1,300 prank calls

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) – Two teenage boys made more than 1,300 prank calls to 911 in six weeks, officials said.

The calls – sometimes as many as 180 a day – strained the county’s emergency communications system and could have blocked legitimate calls, Allegany County Emergency Services Director Richard L. DeVore said.

No fire and rescue crews were dispatched in response to the phony calls. But the pranks progressed from simple hang-ups to insults, profanity and obscenities, officials said.

The pair, ages 15 and 17, were arrested at a Frostburg home. They could be charged with hundreds of offenses, said Deputy State Fire Marshal Ryan Chapman.

The calls inundated the staff of dispatchers.

“We have a minimum of four dispatchers per shift – sometimes we have five,” said Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal Allen Gosnell. “With these two calling in, sometimes we had six or seven people in here just to take the overload of calls.”

Chapman said most of the calls were made from a deactivated cell phone that a family member had given the boys. Cell phones that lack regular service still can be used to call 911.

AP-ES-11-19-05 0539EST