Alert dog helps avert Fermeuse fire tragedy
A family in Fermeuse is staying with relatives after a house fire over the weekend.
A woman and her teenage son lost almost everything they had, but no one was hurt.
And a neighbour says the woman is crediting an unlikely hero — the family dog.
Jim Nolander says the woman who lives next door to him was awakened around 5 a.m. Saturday, but not by the fire.
"She told us that she was asleep and her dog woke her up,” Nolander told CBC News.
“All the downstairs of her house was on fire. She couldn't get downstairs. She broke out the window and threw her dog outside, and then jumped out behind her dog."
It's a drop of several metres to the ground.
Nolander says the woman hurt her leg in the fall, but she was more concerned about her teenage son.
The boy had talked about staying over at a friend's house, but she didn't know if he had come home during the night.
Nolander tried to go in and look for him.
"I just got inside the front door a little bit but flames were everywhere,” he said.
It was several tense hours before the boy was reached on his cellphone.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Meanwhile, the family and their dog are staying with relatives.
