Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST JORDAN -- No one was injured in an early morning house fire Friday, thanks to an alert citizen and a pet poodle.
A person driving by the home saw flames on the side of the house. He stopped and started pounding on the door yelling for everyone to wake up and get out.
The mother and two children inside the home did get up and leave. The mother actually thought the person yelling was her 19-year-old son, but that son was actually sound asleep in the basement, and the house was filling up with smoke.
Firefighters arrived and went in the home to start a search, at which point they were met by the family pet, a poodle named Ted. Ted started barking at the firefighters,then ran down the stairs.
The firefighters followed and Ted led them right to the sleeping teen. Firefighters say they eventually would have found the teen but Ted helped them get to him more quickly, which is important because there was so much smoke in the house.
The family says Ted usually isn't very courageous, but he did a good job this morning.
Fire investigators will now work to find the cause of this fire. Damages are estimated at around $40,000.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
