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Neighbor saves dog, gets help
   
Two-alarm fire reduces home to frame

By LISA ARSENAULT - Monitor staff


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April 04. 2006 8:00AM

 
 
THOMAS WHISENAND / Monitor staff
Firefighters hose down smoldering debris outside a Gilmanton home that was damaged by a two-alarm fire yesterday.

A two-alarm fire ripped through a single-story home off Sawyer Lake Road in Gilmanton yesterday afternoon. Firefighters haven't determined yet what caused the fire, which broke out about 3 p.m. when no one was home.

A neighbor who was one of the first to notice the burning house was able to save the homeowner's dog from the blaze. A cat named Amber escaped as well, but a pet bird named Loco was killed in the fire, firefighters said.

Louella Leroux was alerted that her neighbor's home at 12 Wood Drive was burning by a friend who drove past the house on her way to visit Leroux. The two women called 911 and hurried back to the burning home, where they knew the owners had pets inside.

Leroux, who carries a portable oxygen tank to breathe, did not enter the flaming building. She and her friend opened the front door and called to the dog until he came out, she said. She called to the cat, as well, but the cat was too scared to move, Leroux said. She had been told by the emergency dispatcher not to go in the burning house to save the animals, so she knew there was nothing she could do to save the bird.

"Even in the doorway we were getting overcome by smoke," Leroux said. "Thank God we got the dog out. I was screaming at the top of my lungs."

"Thank God my friend happened to be visiting," said Leroux, who is close friends with the homeowners. "That dog would have never made it. Even in the doorway, we were getting overcome by smoke."

The dog, a miniature Doberman pinscher named Max, was not hurt, she said. The cat was found later, walking through the wreckage. Firefighters from more than half a dozen towns responded to the fire. When they arrived on scene, the house was fully engulfed in flames, according to Gilmanton Fire Chief Rim Robbins. They were able to knock down the flames before they spread to a large wood pile in back of the home and a grove of trees that surrounded it, he said.

Recent dry conditions have sparked fires across the state in the past week. Robbins said firefighters believe the blaze started in the rear of the building or in wood piled beside it. There was not much more than a burnt frame left of what was the small, red house.

Darren Russell, who had lived in the house for two years with his girlfriend and three pets, stood by with tears in his eyes as firefighters put out the flames and threw loads of charred debris from the attic. Russell said he had just gone into town to do errands when the fire broke out.

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