Dog that saves owner perishes in fire

Dog that saves owner perishes in fire


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LAYTON — A dog that saved its owner perished in the fire Wednesday.

Around 3:30 p.m. that day, a Layton woman was napping in her upstairs bedroom when her golden retriever/Labrador mix jumped on her bed in its characteristic manner of "galloping like a horse" when he's excited, Layton Fire Marshal Dean Hunt said.

The woman awoke to thick, black smoke. She attempted to walk down the hall to leave through the front door, but the smoke was so thick she couldn't.


We suspect that it had succumbed to the smoke by then. So it was just a few minutes from claiming her life as well.

–Dean Hunt, Layton Fire Department


She went back into the bedroom with the dog and opened the second-story window. She tried lifting the dog, which was heavier than she was, out the window, Hunt said. She managed to jump from the window, run to the front of the house and open the door, calling for the dog.

Hunt said the dog never came, but that had the animal not awoken the woman, she would have succumbed to the carbon monoxide in the smoke.

"We suspect that it had succumbed to the smoke by then. So it was just a few minutes from claiming her life as well," Hunt said.

According to Hunt, the house was equipped with only one smoke alarm in the basement.

"Had they had smoke alarms that were working properly, she would have been notified much earlier and she would have been able to go out the front door," Hunt said.

One room in the house is a total loss, and there is significant heat and smoke damage. The fire started in the basement and caused between $45,000 and $50,000 in damage, he said. The cause is still under investigation.

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Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

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