Arkansas firefighters set off a blaze that scorched a house when a structure they use to teach fire safety to children snapped a power line en route to an education session. Fire-fighters in Magnolia, about 135 miles southwest of Little Rock, said the fire education structure, called a "smokehouse  struck a power line as they towed it to an elementary school. The downed power line sparked a fire at a nearby house.

The house suffered minimal damage, fire-fighters said, but the pet Chihuahua of a widow living in the home was killed. The dog named Nubin apparently died of smoke inhalation.

The smokehouse is a jumbo-sized doll house used to teach children about how to evacuate their homes in the event of a fire. Fire-fighters on the scene were unable to put out the blaze because one end of the live wire was resting on there truck A second unit has to be summoned to extinguish the blaze.

"It was less embarrassing than frightening,  said Herschel Hampton, chief of the fire department at Magnolia.

Hampton said the local power company had recently moved the line and then failed to raise it to its previous height.