A DOG who had a packet of biscuits in her sights accidentally set fire to her owner’s home.

Peckish staffie Tilly decided she couldn’t wait for Jenni Bryant to return home from college before she tucked into the tasty treats.

So the mischief-making pet embarked on an energetic mission to reach them by jumping up at the kitchen sideboard.

In the process, Tilly knocked the cooker switch, turning on the electric hob, which set a heap of clothes on fire.

Before long, the kitchen at Jenni’s home in Poplar Hall Close, Colchester, was on fire.

A neighbour heard the smoke alarm, saw flames and smoke through the kitchen window, and dialled 999.

Jenni, 21, said: “From what the firefighters have said she turned the cooker on.

“She jumped up on the side to try to get food and knocked one of the hobs on.

“You don’t think ‘My dog might set fire to my house’.”

Jenni, a sociology and psychology student, was at Colchester Institute at the time of the blaze onWednesday morning.

Firefighters from Colchester dashed to the scene and used two hose reel jets to put out the fire within 30 minutes.

The kitchen was smoke damaged, but the blaze had not spread elsewhere.

Jenni, who lives at the house with daughter Bethany-Mae Keem, two, first thought she had left her hair straighteners on.

But she said she was convinced Tilly was to blame as she often jumps up at the kitchen sideboard.

But she insisted Tilly was not in trouble for the escapade.