Modesto fire victim tried desperately to save her four dogs but two died
Three people were displaced and two dogs died in a fire at duplex in west Modesto early Friday morning.
The fire broke out just before 1 a.m. in the 200 block of South Washington Street, just west of downtown.
A Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy on patrol in the area was the first to report the fire when he found the hysterical residents — a woman, her adult son and his girlfriend — outside, said Lt. Dave Hutchinson, commander of the Stanislaus Regional Fire Investigation Unit.
They had awakened to the smell of natural gas, then discovered the fire in the rear of the home.
The woman was attempting to round up her four dogs to evacuate when one of them ran through the fire and the leash it was wearing caught fire, then landed on its back, said fire investigator Paul Spani.
She put the dog in the bathtub while trying to contain a smaller dog, but two others ran into her bedroom, where the fire had spread.
“She needed to get out of the house at that point because the fire had spread pretty rapidly,” Spani said.
The woman escaped with the larger dog on the leash and the small dog, but the two dogs that ran into her bedroom died.
She suffered smoke inhalation but refused treatment. The larger dog had minor burns.
Hutchinson said it appears the fire started in a water heater closet at the back of the house, but the cause remains under investigation. He said the residents had also smelled natural gas earlier in the day.
Both sides of the duplex were damaged, but no one lived on the other side, said Modesto Fire Department Battalion Chief Ryan Winton. He estimated the fire caused about $200,000 in damage.
The American Red Cross was called to assist the residents.
Winton said the smoke detectors in the home were not functioning and reminds residents that it is “essential to get working smoke detectors.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2019 at 11:30 AM.
