Two dogs saved from fire on Elgin Street
A passerby became an instant hero Monday afternoon (June 2) as he ran into a burning house to save two dogs trapped inside.
It isn’t a move the London Fire Department platoon Chief on scene would recommend, but it saved the lives of diminutive duo Tiggy and Elvis when Tony Laviolette, 30, and another man raced into the house on Elgin Street, just south of Horton St., shortly after 2:30 p.m.
He said he was just driving through the area to pick up a co-worker on the way to collect a television for scrap in Dorchester when he saw the massive plumes of black smoke coming from Elgin Street, so he turned down the block and saw the one-storey detached bungalow at 91 Elgin St. belching black, acrid smoke.
“If you’ve ever burned plastic, that’s what it tasted like,” Laviolette said. “We had to cover our mouths with our shirts.”
A woman living across the road from the fire told him there were dogs inside, so he and another man raced in, found the dogs after some searching and brought them outside.
“I couldn’t bear to know the dogs were in there,” he said. “We opened the patio door and searched around a bit and tried to go downstairs because we could hear them yelping. We couldn’t see them there so we turned and saw their faces poking out over a baby gate.”
He said it was “all black” inside with flames at the front of the house.
“I tried to stay low, I had a broomstick I used to make way for us,” he said. “If the dogs weren’t white, there’s no way we would have seen them. It was flaming hot outside and even worse inside.”
Firefighters were called to the home at 2:26 p.m. according to platoon chief Tom Mathers. He said London police and the fire prevention office would be investigating the blaze. He “guesstimated” damage at $100,000; no cause has been determined.
Mathers said passerby should never run into a burning house, under any conditions – call 911 and wait for the professionals.
Laviolette said he would do it again “any day of the week. I’m not the type of person to just stand around and watch that happen.”
