A “hero” dog on Friday alerted its owner to a massive apartment complex fire in Baldwinsville, New York.
Angela Murray was already in bed when her dog, Rocco, a black and white Pitbull mix, started barking “worse than usual.”
“Then I could faintly hear the alarm going off,” Murray said.
Despite her inclination to go back to bed and ignore her dog, she listened to her furry friend.
She continued, “I went to the living room where he kept barking and I’m hearing ‘pop pop pop’ in the ceiling. I’m like ‘oh no, this is real.’”
When Murray exited the building and crossed the street, she could see the apartment complex staircase had been engulfed in flames.
‘Hero’ dog alerts owner to massive apartment complex fire in Baldwinsville Spoiler: his name is Rocco. https://t.co/TKF9Sa8ZaE
— Rylee Kirk (@kirk_rylee) January 25, 2025
“If I had stopped to get for my glasses or look for my wallet… nope, I wouldn’t have made it out,” she remarked.
The fire traveled through two buildings in the New Legacy Apartments complex; the roofs eventually collapsed.
The fire was so fierce it took firefighters more than nine hours to put out the flames.
The fire eventually damaged or ruined 24 apartment units.
A local news outlet reported:
Murray, who is originally from Brooklyn and is a retired law enforcement officer, said she called her son. As he drove in he could see the smoke all the way from Village Green.
She walked down to the Microtel to meet up with her son along with the man who lived across the street, she said.
“My son met me and he hugged the gentleman and said ‘thank you,” Murray remarked.
Murray added, “A couple of tenants are calling him the ‘hero dog.’ They said they never hear him bark but he was barking out of control, that something was wrong.”
The American Red Cross set up a shelter for residents effected by the fire and Murray was there on Saturday morning.One resident at the shelter exclaimed upon seeing the pooch, “That’s our hero dog! He deserves an award or something!”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
