An apartment fire in Vancouver’s West End on Friday night put at least 30 people out of their homes. Included in them was Brittany Cosgrove, who says if it wasn’t for her four-month-old terrier, they all could have lost a lot more.
The residents were displaced after flames ripped through a three-storey building on Barclay Street just after 2 a.m. on Saturday. Luckily no one was hurt and tenants will eventually be able to go home, but it could have been much worse.
Only a few days after adopting little Leo, Cosgrove was asleep when the young dog’s barking woke her. She got up and noticed something wasn’t right.
“When I opened my bathroom door, the flames were dripping down into the floor and the floor had a big hole in it already,” Cosgrove said.
The ceiling fan in the bathroom had caught fire and the smoke and flames were already spreading to the third-floor unit and the roof.
“If Leo hadn’t barked and I hadn’t made that initial reaction, I think that a majority of the entire building would have burned down,” she added.
Fire crews determined the blaze was was an electrical fire that had started in the ceiling fan. For some reason, fire alarms on the second and third floor did not go off and residents there only awoke when they heard the firemen going up the stairs.
For Cosgrove, she’s grateful she had the dog at home.
“Leo’s barking saved the day… he’s just my little hero.”
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