Pit Bull Saves Woman From House Fire, Praised as a Hero
A New York woman's dog is being hailed a hero after it began barking when a fire broke out in her Long Island home Friday. The barking alerted her to the danger and allowed her to escape.
Pit bulls are a breed of dog who mainly garner negative headlines for violence, which have led some to conclude that they are unsafe canines. But for Jackie Bonasera, the afternoon inferno that destroyed her house could have turned deadly if it were not for her pit bull, Cain.
Bonasera was in an upstairs bathroom when she heard Cain barking relentlessly. When she went down to investigate the continuous barking, she saw flames burning the exterior of the house, according to Newsday.
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She was able to retreat to safety using the garage as an exit and was met with concerned neighbors, but she noticed that Cain was not at her side and rushed back in to save the life of the dog that had just saved hers, according to the Long Island Press.
"I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog -- I'm like, 'He saved my life, I have to save his,'" Bonasera recounted to NBC. "So I just put my robe over my face and I ran back in and I grabbed the dog."
No one was injured in the blaze, which took more than 70 firefighters to extinguish. Banasera believes she would not have been able to escape if she had not heard Cain barking.
"He's a pit bull, too," Alexus Stallworth, Bonasera's daughter, told NBC. "They have such bad reps, but he's such a good boy."
The cause of Friday's blaze has not been determined. Although the Nassau County Arson and bomb squad is investigating, police don't believe it's suspicious, Oyster Bay Patch reported.
