Hero Dog ‘Foxy’ Wakes Up Family Of Eight Following House Fire, Saves Them From Certain Death
In yet another case of a dog coming to the rescue of its family, Foxy, a two-year-old dog, is being hailed a hero after it was revealed that she almost certainly saved the lives of seven members of a family by alerting them about a fire. According to KTLA, Foxy woke up inhabitants of her Santa Ana home after it caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The family, which consisted of eight members, were all fast asleep when the raging inferno started. Foxy, according to them, started barking uncontrollably to alert them of the danger. Luckily, the family members who were fast asleep managed to get up just in time and move away to safety.
Within minutes, they called up the Orange County Fire Authority, who reached the spot soon. By then the fire had transformed into a raging inferno, reported NBC Los Angeles. It took the firefighters nearly an hour to bring the fire under control. According to authorities, firefighters first reached the spot at around 1:40 a.m. It wasn’t, however, until 2:15 that they managed to bring the flames under control. However, by the time the fire was completely extinguished, the home was completely burnt. The structure, according to Orange County Fire Authority officials, has been deemed a total loss.
The OCFA also confirmed that there were seven adults and a child inside the home when it caught fire. A tweet by them also proclaimed Foxy to be the hero of the entire episode.
SA – Cause under investigation. 2 yr old family dog named Foxy woke up the family & she is the hero. Onscene TV has video.
— OCFA PIO (@OCFA_PIO) January 21, 2015
The family, who is obviously distraught at the loss of their home, is happy, however, that Foxy was able to save their lives. The resident of the house Vera Mendez cradled Foxy as the dog kissed her cheeks. Earlier, Mendez described how Foxy had alerted all the members of the family about the impending danger.
“She started barking and barking, and woke up one of my sons, and he actually woke everybody else. By the time we got up, the whole house was full of black smoke and you could see the fire. I was really scared.”
Mendez, who had already lost her grandmother to a fire, further added the following.
“If it hadn’t have been because of her, I don’t know what would have happened.”
While there were smoke alarms in the house, it seems the alarms either did not function or their sound was not heard at all by the family members. It was Foxy’s bark that eventually saved their lives.
Meanwhile, the American Red Cross has now come forward to assist the displaced family members and offer them a temporary living space until they get their home back up. Authorities are still investigating the actual cause of the fire, which is estimated to cost the family nearly $300,000 in damages.
[Image via NBC Los Angeles]
