Quick thinking and brave actions by some Lake Country residents led to eight puppies being rescued from a burning home.
The fire had engulfed almost the entire roof and some of the attic at a home on Hallum Road when the heroic neighbours decided to enter the home.
“We heard puppies inside. So my dad and one of the guys tried breaking down the door but it wasn’t working,” said Kristen Tennant, a nearby resident.
“I ran home to get a hammer and I smashed the window beside the front door. Then a group of us ran inside to find the puppies we heard. We grabbed all the puppies and we ran them out to the front yard.”
The blaze took place on June 17 in the late afternoon.
Lake Country Fire Department had to enter the home to save the other three adult dogs who couldn’t be found by the good samaritans.
“Our crews made entry and pretty quickly we found two of the full-grown dogs on the main floor, we searched for the third dog on the top floor, where the fire had burned into the attic space and the ceilings were falling down,” said Steve Windsor, Lake Country’s Fire Chief.
“It took some time but we were able to locate the dog on the third floor. It was hiding in the bathroom behind the toilet, in about a foot of water.”
The final dog had suffered from severe smoke inhalation — firefighters were able to give it oxygen and the dog was then transported to an animal hospital in Kelowna.
The firefighters believe the dog will recover just fine.
The home owners, who were not home at the start of the blaze, arrived shortly after.
“They were happy no one got hurt in the fire,” said Windsor.
“They were pretty overwhelmed when the dog was found and still alive.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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