Thanks to Bella the dog’s quick thinking four people, including a young child and a teenager, were saved from a house fire in the early hours of this morning. According to reports, Bella woke up the family to alert them of the fire which left the kitchen badly damaged.
Smoke and flames engulfed the mid-terrace house and fire fighters had to fight their way into the kitchen in order to stop the blaze.
The family were checked over by paramedics before being taken to hospital, and little Bella, who saved their lives, was also taken to safety.
Talking about the terrifying incident, Sophie Campbell, a niece of the family, said: "They were in bed and they heard Bella barking and Bella would never usually bark, so they got up, one of them ran down the stairs and whenever they hit the living room they obviously saw that there was a fire."
“They went into the kitchen and luckily there were able to get Bella out of her cage, they went up the stairs and rang the fire brigade.”
The family are incredibly lucky that Bella was around as they don’t have a working fire alarm - a dangerous issue that Station Commander Michael Harkin wants to highlight.
Talking about the importance of a working smoke alarm, the station commander said: “You must have a working fire alarm – if you don’t have one go out and buy one today. If anyone has removed a battery from their smoke alarm or removed it, replace it today”
