PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (ABC 4 News) – A Pleasant Grove man says a Shih Tzu’s bark alarmed his family minutes before a fire would have engulfed his home.
The dog’s name is Halia. She started barking around 3:00 a.m. Monday when a fire started in the next door neighbors detached garage at 49 South 360 East.
For only a few minutes Halia was the only one aware of the rapidly growing fire, until her master finally woke. ”I sat up and took my earplugs out and I could hear a crackling noise,” said Julia Timothy.
She looked out her window, saw the fire and immediately called 911 before running to her neighbors home where she screamed and banged on the Petty’s doors and windows.
David Petty eventually stumbled to the door about two minutes later. “I open up the door. She goes, 'Your house is on fire' and there’s smoke outside and at that point your going something is definitely up,” said David Petty.
He quickly ran back inside to wake his wife and four daughters.
“When I woke up I could smell the smoke, but I didn’t really process in my mind what was going on and so I didn’t even really see the smoke until I got outside,” said Kate Petty.
Fire fighters estimate the garage was 15 minutes away from collapsing a wall of flaming debris on the Petty’s home.
“It would have been pretty bad, let’s just put it that way,” said David Petty.
A heat lamp to warm pet rabbits in the garage started the fire. David suspects the rabbits chewed through the electric cord.
The Petty family is sad to loose the rabbits, but extremely grateful for the dog who sounded the alarm with her bark.
“I don’t know what we would have happened without the dog there. There would have been a lot more damage,” said Olivia Petty.
“That is one great dog, absolutely,” said David Petty.
Halia was rewarded with a steak dinner and a lot of attention.
There is no damage to the Petty’s home.
