Lamb Chop's dog-sitter, Gail Wilhelm, was on her way to the Francisco Avenue home to pick up the white and brown poodle-dachshund mix for a veterinarian visit when the homeowner, away on vacation in Florida, called her to say the house was on fire.
"My heart has been in my stomach," Wilhelm said as she watched the home burn, asking people if they'd seen Lamb Chop.
Wilhelm has been taking care of Lamb Chop for seven or eight years and said the dog got sick on Saturday, the day before her owner left. "I knew this was going to be a bad week but I didn't expect this," Wilhelm said. "That should have been an omen."
The pair reunited when Wilhelm found the son of the homeowner. Lamb Chop, who Wilhelm said is 14 or 15 years old, was in a car with the son. She pulled the dog, which weighs about 14 pounds, out of the car window and buried her face in fur, crying.
"If anything would have happened to her, I don't know what I would have done," Wilhelm said through tears. "I would have gone in and got her myself."
Detective Sgt. Tom Lewis and Officers Chris Beatini and Vincent Callan responded to the home, 135 Francisco Ave., around 10:45 a.m. and saw that the front porch was already in flames. They went to the back of the house, shouting for residents to get out, and saw Lamb Chop in the kitchen.
"There was a lot of smoke and the wind was blowing toward us," Lewis said.
Lamb Chop appeared nervous but Callan grabbed her collar and handed her off to Beatini.
"She came right to me," Beatini, with fur on his blue uniform, later told Wilhelm as she hugged him with the dog in her arms.
 |
| From left to right, Det Sgt Tom Lewis, Police Officer Vincent Callan and Police Officer Chris Beatini are pictured after rescuing a dog named Lamb Chop from a burning Rutherford home Wednesday. |
"God bless those guys that went in and got her," Wilhelm said.
Other officers also took a black-and-white dog out of 123 Francisco Ave. because there were embers in the backyard and the home seemed to be filling with smoke, Police Chief John Russo said.
Deputy Fire Chief Christopher Seidler said the three-alarm blaze started at 135 Francisco Ave. and spread to the house next door, 131 Francisco Ave. No one was home in either house. The fire was reported around 10:45 a.m.
The windy, dry conditions enabled the blaze to spread quickly and gutted 135. The second house was damaged but it is intact.
The fire was under control around noon, Seidler said. A fourth alarm was called for additional fire departments to standby in Rutherford firehouses. No firefighters were injured.
The blaze's cause is under investigation. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Arson Squad is helping in the investigation, though Russo said no foul play is suspected. Seidler did not know how many people had been displaced.
Firefighters were able to attack the blaze at 131 from inside the home, but were forced to fight the fire at 135 from the outside with hoses on the ground and in aerial ladders.
"It's very dry," he said. "The conditions are not favorable."
About 50 firefighters from Rutherford, Lyndhurst, Wallington, East Rutherford, Carlstadt, Moonachie and North Arlington responded.
(North Jersey.com - April 21, 2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment