PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A row home fire in East Germantown early Friday morning could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for a barking dog.
Around 12:30 a.m., a fire broke out in a home on East Stafford Street, near Chew Avenue.
Lauren Rutherford said her dog, Scarlett, started barking and woke up her son, Daniel. Once he saw the smoke, he alerted his mom, and the pair started knocking on neighbors’ doors and helping them get out safely.
“We ran inside to help them get their valuables out, get their animals out, because we know them from the neighborhood,” she told NBC10. “We see them walk their dogs just like we walk our dogs. If [Scarlett] hadn’t woken us up, we might not have known.”
Fortunately, firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the one unit on the block.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.