Family dog acts as fire alarm, family gets to safety from Thanksgiving Day fire
CALEXICO – A family in Calexico was alerted to the fire emanating from their children’s room by their trusty fire alarm – their family dog – early on Thanksgiving Day.
The small, single-room fire occurred at an undisclosed residence in Calexico around 5 a.m., said Calexico Fire Department Captain Lalo Rivera. The fire started at the residence in the children’s room, Rivera said of the Nov. 24 Thanksgiving morning fire.
The residence did not have any smoke detectors, according a Calexico Fire Department social media post. Thankfully the family pet – a dog named “Fiona” – alerted the children to the fire by barking enough to wake them up, Rivera said.
“The family (later) commented … she was with the kids, and she woke up the kids by barking,” Rivera said. “The kids woke up, who in turn woke up the dad, and they got everybody out,” Rivera said. This included all nine of the building’s residents, according to the CFD post.
Calexico Fire stations 1 and 2 responded to the two-story structure fire, according to the post.
“There was smoke seen coming from the second floor,” Rivera said, who was on-scene. “When we arrived on-scene we deployed an attack line luckily we were able to make access fairly easily and quickly. (We) stretched-the line all the way to the second floor.”
The fire was contained to a single room by “an aggressive interior fire attack” by CFD, per the post.
“As we got closer we were able to find the fire’s exact location and were able to put it out,” Rivera said.
“Prior to our arrival we got notification that everybody was out of the house. Nobody was hurt,” Rivera said, and “there were no fire personnel injuries.”
Though Rivera said the cause of this specific Thanksgiving Day fire in Calexico is still currently under investigation, he also said this was “sort of the first fire we had during the holiday season” for Calexico Fire Department, and that “these smaller fires” are all-too-common during the holiday season.
“Basically with the traditions of the holidays you have extra lighting, decorations, candles … it’s kind of like every Christmas, Thanksgiving and holiday we have to remind people to be careful not to overload circuits, breakers and outlets, and be careful utilizing surge protectors,” Rivera said. “A lot of people need to realize that space heaters need to be plugged in to the outlet, not the surge protector.”
“Yes, (without the dog or a working smoke detector), it would have been a totally different narrative,” said Calexico Fire Chief Diego Favila.
“We would like to remind residents that they should change their batteries every time Daylight Saving changes,” Favila said. “If they are having problems finding their battery or just need help they can reach out to us,” the Fire Chief said.
“We have a full month of December coming up and everybody is going to be decorating,” Rivera said. “We just want to keep everyone as safe as we can so everyone can enjoy the holidays,” he said.