Cat pees on fax, burns down house

Is there a moral here? The contest is now open.


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Cats caused house fire by urinating on fax
The Yomiuri Shimbun

A house fire that occurred on Jan. 16 in Nagata Ward,
Kobe, was caused by cats urinating on a fax machine, the
city's fire department said Thursday.

According to the department, the thermal printer head of
the machine was extensively burned, and members of the
household told the department their nine cats often
urinated on the machine.

In an experiment using the same model machine, the
department dripped a sample of 0.5 milliliters of urine
on the printer head's nine elements, which were spaced
0.5 millimeters apart. The first droplet conducted the
electrical current, and by the 15th, the machine produced
a spark.

An official of the National Research Institute of Fire
and Disaster said, "Cat urine contains salt, and salt
water conducts electricity well. This probably caused the
fire."