A St. Albert family wants to thank some mystery men for saving their dog from a fire.
St. Albert fire crews zipped over to 89 Morgan Cres. at about 4 p.m. Sunday after getting a call about a garage on fire.
Tiffany Finseth says her mother, Sandy, was in the home’s kitchen at the time, baking cookies when she heard an explosion. Looking out the kitchen window, she saw flames leaping out of her backyard garage. Sandy grabbed her two grandkids and bolted from the house.
Thick black smoke and flames were pouring from the garage by the time fire crews arrived. Northwesterly winds kept the smoke and flames away from other homes, says fire investigator Les Mroz.
Neighbours soon realized that the family’s dog of eight years, Rocky, was trapped behind the burning building. According to Finseth, someone must have hopped into their backyard and helped the big black German shepherd over the back fence because, soon enough, an unknown individual had led the dog around the corner back to the family. Several people also helped a neighbouring homeowner push an antique car out of a garage close to the fire.
Mroz was still investigating the cause of the fire, but he and family members think a furnace or welding equipment in the garage may have been the cause; witnesses report hearing several loud pops from the garage before the fire. The fire left the building a blackened, roofless shell of its former self, full of charcoaled tools and equipment. Damage is estimated at about $50,000.
There were no injuries, Finseth says, although Rocky ended up slightly singed. “The tip of his tail is burnt off and he’s got some singed hair on his head, but other than that he’s 100 per cent fine.” The cookies ended up burnt, she adds.
The Finseths did the right thing by getting out of the house as quickly as they could, says Mroz. If you spot flames, get out of the house first before calling the fire department, he advises, especially if the fire is inside your house.
Finseth thanked the mystery neighbours for saving Rocky. “We’ve had him for eight years, and when you’ve had a dog that long it’s part of the family,” Finseth says. “If you hadn’t done it, we would have lost him.”
