Douglas O’Conner was sleeping peacefully in his home in Arlington, Washington with his wife when he heard something break the silence – his Australian Shepherd-Labrador mix barking in the middle of the night. He checked the time, it was 3 AM.
The 3-year-old dog was desperately trying to alert her owners of what was going on. “Normally, I just tell her, yell at her to go to sleep, you know? O’Connor said, “We were both in bed sleeping, because it was 3 o’clock in the morning.”
What made O’Connor knew something was wrong was that her bark was different than normal. It was a far cry from her normal bark. O’Connor and his wife immediately knew that Lucy was trying to tell them something. O’Connor said it was a “Loud, screaming-type bark.”
A Different Kind Of Bark
“It was totally different than her just barking at a usual bark. It totally woke us both up.” He said, “Something’s wrong. She was trying to tell us something.”
After looking around, O’Connor’s wife noticed that Lucy was in front of one of the bay windows, barking at something outside. This was unusual behavior. They didn’t know what she was trying to tell them, but it had to have been important.
O’Connor’ wife wanted to investigate and decided to look out of their window. She opened the curtains to try and figure out what Lucy was barking at. Her eyes quickly gravitated to the blaze outside. That had to have been why Lucy was barking.
A Fire
O’Connor said, “It woke my wife up, and she opened the curtains, and she, you know, said, ‘Honey, there’s a fire over at Doug’s.'”
O’Connor can still remember just how the blaze looked, “The flame went out of control, and then it was just a blaze, and the whole side of the building was on fire. I’m just glad that nobody was hurt.”
The fire was spreading quickly, and they needed firefighters to come out to battle the blaze. The couple grabbed a phone and made the call to emergency services. Soon after, they arrived and managed to extinguish the fire.
Extinguishing The Fire
Arlington Police Department said that North County Fire/EMS and Arlington police officers were called about the blaze and arrived on the scene to find a shop next to a home had caught on fire.
The firefighters quickly got to work and finished extinguishing the fire, before they assessed the damage to the property.
After looking at the aftermath, they deduced that, thankfully, no one was caught in the fire. Only the detached workshop had been lost and the fire hadn’t spread to the home, despite it being very close.
Praising Lucy
Despite it just being the workshop, the fire could have easily become uncontrollable if Lucy hadn’t noticed – “Firefighters said another 10 minutes, that could have reached the house.” O’Connor commented, “So that was a little scary.”
After everything had settled the firefighters were told that Lucy was responsible for alerting the couple to the fire. They came to see her and praised her heroic actions.
O’Connor commented, “I think the fire department and the police officers just fell in love with her.” His last comment was, “”She’s just a good dog. She’s really one of a kind. I love her to death.”
A Heroic Dog
Everyone can agree that if not for Lucy, things would have been much worse for everybody involved. The blaze could have easily spread to their home.
She’s a heroic dog that deserves all the praise she can get. O’Connor is sure to reward her with plenty of belly rubs, and hopefully a few treats. There’s still no explanation as to what started the fire.
Source:
Heroic dog saves neighbor’s house, possibly life after alerting owners of a fire
