Toddler dies in house fire, with his dog by his side
SEATTLE— A toddler who died in a house fire was found with his dog and teddy bear next to him, and authorities believe the dog tried to protect the boy.
The dog, a terrier mixed breed, also died in the fire that broke out at about11:30 p.m. Friday, said Spokane, Wash., fire department spokesperson Brian Schaeffer.
The boy was found in a bedroom heavily damaged by fire, Schaeffer said Saturday. Three other children and two adults escaped the blaze in Spokane’s Hillyard neighbourhood.
The dog stayed behind in an attempt to protect the boy, firefighters believe, and the fire was so intense that it melted the metal on the frame of the boy’s bed.
“It melted everything,” Schaeffer said. “There was no way to survive that.”
Jerry Atabelo, who lives across the street, told the Spokesman-Review he saw the flames and heard screaming as he was getting ready for bed. He yelled for his wife to call 911 and ran outside to hook up his 50-metre water hose.
As people screamed that a child was still in the house, neighbours dragged the hose across the street and sprayed water through a window to try to put out the fire, Atabelo said.
The battery in a smoke detector in the house had been removed, Schaeffer said.
The cause of the fire and the child’s death are under investigation.