Pet pig sets Pennsylvania home on fire trying to stay warm

By Marcie Cipriani

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    SLIPPERY ROCK, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — A Slippery Rock family tells Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that their pot-bellied pig set their home on fire after they provided him with hay to stay warm.

“I had added extra hay for him because I knew it was going to snow,” said Margaret Painter. “He had a little heat light there in the front… and he must have knocked his hay into the heat lamp and caught the house on fire.”

Painter said it was a few hours before the new year when she saw the orange glow outside her windows and called to her husband.

“I opened the door and it flashed into the house,” said Tom Painter. “I tried to put it out, and then the windows started exploding.”

The Painters and their children escaped. They said they lost two cats, but three survived. Albert, the pot-bellied pig, suffered burns but survived as well.

Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 has learned that a rescue ranch in Darlington, Beaver County, has taken Albert into their care. They are transporting him to Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns.

The Painters have a GoFundMe page set up to help in their recovery.

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