Elderly Man Saved After Dog Alerts Neighbors When Home Catches Fire

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A dog named Shadow in Hurricane, West Virginia, is getting lots of attention for helping save an elderly man recently from a house fire.

The Great Dane alerted neighbor Ronald Call to a fire around 4:00 a.m. Wednesday at his grandfather’s nearby home and he and his cousin worked to put out the flames and get the 83-year-old to safety, WCHS reported.

In a Facebook post, Mayor Scott Edwards said Ronald awoke to the noise of the dog moving back and forth on his porch and moments later he saw the fire glowing at the house.

“We heard all this commotion from the dog on the porch,” Ronald explained. “[I walked outside and] it looked like the sun was on the ground. I just ran over. By that time, my grandfather was on the porch.”

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Once he was sure his grandfather, Hubert, was safe, he rushed to the backyard and pulled the HVAC unit away from the house to stop the fire from spreading.

He sustained minor injuries, and while the smoke filled the home, the damage was limited.

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“Without working smoke detectors [and] Shadow, the Great Dane, things would have been a completely different story,” said Hurricane Fire Department Chief Deron Wilkes, adding, “The fire was burning underneath Hubert’s bedroom.”

When Edwards spoke with Ronald following the incident, he told him, “Shadow wasn’t leaving ‘till I came outside. This dog is a hero!”

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Ronald later shared a photo of the Great Dane on his Facebook page and said he owed him big time:

The entire Call family offered their thanks to the multiple fire departments that traveled to Putnam County to help extinguish the fire, and Ronald said several firefighters and their families also came in their own pickup trucks to make sure everyone was safe.

“If that doesn’t make you see something different, there’s nothing in the world that will,” he commented.

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