Jogger uses Ring camera to alert California neighbors of fire, then rescues their pets
.png "A jogger used a family’s Ring doorbell camera to tell them their house was on fire. Then, he rescued their pets from inside.")
A California family is looking for a mysterious jogger who saved their pets — and their home — from a fire.
The Scotts Valley family was out of town on Nov. 6 when the jogger noticed smoke coming from the house. He rang their Ring doorbell and was able to reach the homeowners that way, Fox 13 reported.
“I saw him running back and forth,” Courtney Polito, one of the homeowners, told KHOU. “So I answered it, and he said, ‘Hello, do you see there’s smoke coming out of the top of your house?’”
Polito heard the smoke alarms going off inside the home, and she gave the man the code to unlock the front door. He went inside and rescued all of the household’s pets — two dachshunds, a rabbit and a cat, Fox 13 reported.
The family was amazed that a stranger was so willing to put himself in danger to help others, the station said.
“It takes a special kind of person to go into a burning house to save animals,” Tony Polito, Courtney’s husband, told Fox 13.
The fire department later told Courtney that if the jogger hadn’t noticed what was going on, she and her family probably would have lost everything.
“The fire department said 10 more minutes and the house would have been gone,” Courtney told KHOU.
Polito is still unsure who the jogger is — and she didn’t get a chance to thank him before he left.
“I want to give him a hug,” Polito told ABC 7. “I’ll bring him to lunch. I’ll bring him dinner. I don’t know.... I just want to thank him so much and let him know how thankful we are. My kids, my husband, we would be devastated if we lost our pets, let alone our home.”
The household was left with smoke damage, damaged cabinets, destroyed Christmas presents and a damaged Chevy Blazer. But once fire crews arrived, they were able to keep the flames contained to the garage, KHOU reported.
“This is the first for our agency where someone uses a Ring doorbell system to alert 911 and the homeowners,” Andrew LoFranco, Scotts Valley battalion chief, told KHOU.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Jogger uses Ring camera to alert California neighbors of fire, then rescues their pets."