FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Fort Lauderdale man has been reunited with his pet dogs after a kitchen fire charred his apartment with the canines trapped inside.
Rescue crews responded to an apartment building at 1721 SE 17th St., at around 10 a.m., Wednesday.
“I’m so grateful to have my dogs,” John, who didn’t give his last name, said. “I don’t care about any of this. I don’t care about any of this.”
He added that his neighbor was able to pull the dogs out of the apartment.
“A neighbor of mine actually was brave enough to get them,” John said. “They’re two rescue pit bulls, but they’re as sweet as can be. They’re my service animals. They wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Officials said one of the dogs may have jumped up on the stove and accidentally turned the knob, heating something already on the stovetop, which started the fire.
“I feel worse I wasn’t here with them while this was happening,” John said. “That’s the relationship I have with my dogs. I can’t imagine what they were going through.”
Firefighters said the building’s sprinkler system worked well, which may have saved lives and the property.
“You know, this is a prime example of how sprinklers save lives,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan. “If not for the sprinkler activation, this fire very easily could have not only killed the dogs that were in that apartment but also spread to the other apartments nearby and affected people on the sixth floor or even the pets.”
However, the water from the sprinkler spread throughout the building.
Taylor Dodds, who lives a few floors under where the fire sparked, came home to find her unit flooded.
“I thought it was me at first, that I left something on or, like, who knows,” Dodds said.
The official cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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