A dog is being credited with saving two men – one of whom is blind - from a house fire in East Vancouver over the weekend.
The fire broke out in a home undergoing renovations on Euclid Avenue near Melbourne Street around 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
Battalion Chief Jim Booth said two men were home and sleeping at the time, but the dog woke them up and they managed to escape. No one was injured in the blaze.
“The dog woke them up, he heard something and thanks to the dog they got out of the house,” said Booth, noting he believed one of the men was blind.
“Like all good pets do, it made sure its owner got out.”
Veterinarian Dr. Adrian Walton said dogs recognize the smell of smoke as a sign of danger, and that warning their owners is natural pack behaviour.
"Any danger to one animal is a danger to the pack, so they will make sure the entire pack knows – and that [includes] alerting us owners to danger," Walton said.
When fire crews arrived at the blaze, the garage and building materials being stored inside were ablaze.
The flames spread to the upper deck of the house, but crews managed to stop the flames from getting inside the home.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim
