Dog's bite saves boy and pals from house fire

Plucky pooch credited with waking teen as blaze begins to consume home

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updated 1:37 p.m. ET Jan. 8, 2008

PORTAGE, Ind. — A black Labrador that bit a 13-year-old boy's foot repeatedly, waking him up, is being credited with saving the boy and two of his friends from a house fire.

Christopher Peebles said he woke up Friday morning to feel his dog Laney biting his foot repeatedly in the basement of his family's home, where he and two friends had spent the night.

"I thought she had to go to the bathroom, but she never bites me," Peebles said.

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He and his friends walked upstairs with Laney and noticed smoke everywhere in the home.

"We came up the stairs and thought it was a dream, but it was cold when we opened the door — then we knew it wasn't a dream," Pebbles said.

Firefighters arrived about 10 a.m. and found the home's garage and eaves on fire. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Bucy said the damage was mostly in the attached one-car garage of the ranch home.

Fire Chief Bill Lundy said the fire, which caused an estimated $25,000 in damage to the home, appeared to have started in an electrical heating unit in the garage.

'Very protective'
Peebles' parents, Dave and Vicky Peebles, were both at work at the time of the fire. They said they were relieved that their son and his friends were not injured.

Dave Peebles said that one point after Laney had ushered Christopher and his friends out of the house the dog ran back inside and wouldn't come out until he went in to get her.

Peebles said his son and the dog were "real close."

"She's always been very protective of him," Vicky Peebles said of Laney.