WATCH: New York firemen save girl's Easter present, a puppy, from fire that leaves family homeless
A New York girl thought she had lost her puppy when a fire broke out yesterday (April 7) morning.
Bella Louis, nine, her aunt and cousin were racing from the blaze that ripped through the family’s home in Brooklyn when she realised Mickey the pooch was nowhere in sight.
“We couldn’t get him,” she said.
“My aunt said to just leave him.
"I was really scared because I knew that Mickey was ... in the house.”
But thanks to quick-thinking firemen like Frankie Valerio, the three-month-old Maltese lived to bark another day, New York Daily News reported.
Firemen put out the flames that destroyed a family's home in Brooklyn, New York. PHOTO: YouTube screengrab
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The blaze, which started at 11.20am, engulfed the two-storey building and spread to a home next door, said Fire Department City of New York (FDNY) Battalion Chief Mike Golini.
Officers who arrived at the scene braved the fire.
That's when Valerio found the scared Mickey trembling at the rear of the burning structure. Smiling, he said:
“(Mickey) must have been hungry. He was in the kitchen."
Fellow firefighters then strapped an oxygen mask over the dog’s snout to help him catch his breath.
PHOTO: YouTube screengrab
And no one was more happy to see Valerio emerge from the smoke and flames with the wide-eyed, soot-covered pooch in his arms than Bella — who had received Mickey on Sunday as an Easter gift.
Her 7-year-old cousin, Jamir Alcine, said:
“I got worried... I didn’t think he survived (and) I’m glad he’s OK.”
No injuries were reported, officials said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Sources: YouTube, New York Daily News, New York Post
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