There must be something instinctive about smoke being trouble. When I had lately moved into a new house and the furnace came on for the first time in the fall season, the air belching out of it smelled of oil smoke for a minute or two. (It's like that every time it hasn't run for a few months.) My cat started meowing in panic at once.
That may well be but why did the *other* 5 dogs just lay there like a buncha idjits?....LOL!
[possibly since Minnie was the "boss" of them all, they were politely waiting for ~her~ to do something]....;)
Oh yes, all animals seem to instinctively fear fire. I have pet rats and in the several years I've had them, the most upset I've ever seen then was when we had a minor kitchen fire in the oven. All my rats were gently raised and tamed, and thus relatively fearless...thunderstorms, touchy and loud smoke detectors, curious cats, most strangers, all the things you'd expect to scare a small animal never phased them a bit. The first serious whiff of smoke tho, and their ears went straight up into attentive/alert position and their little noses were twitching trying to find the threat. That was without a doubt the closest to outright panic rather than friendly curiosity or mild annoyance I've seen from them.