Pug Gives Its Life to Save SoCal Owner

Dog was "love of her life"

A dog was credited for saving it's owner's life, but losing it’s own, as flames tore through a La Jolla apartment, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The fire broke out just before 10 p.m. Wednesday night inside a second-story unit of the La Jolla Place Apartments on Chelsea Avenue.

The woman was in the shower when her pet pug started barking. She got out of the shower to find her couch on fire, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque told the paper.

The woman panicked and ran outside, but the door locked behind her and she couldn’t get back inside to rescue her dog. "I saw Julie and her little dog Javier, she says he started barking," said neighor Todd Cameron.

Cameron and several other neighbors are being hailed heroes for jumping in and trying to help.

"I was watching TV with my parents. Then all of a sudden I heard a big pop and a lady screaming. So I ran outside to see," JJ Phillips said. "I saw Julie, our neighbor. She said her condo was on fire and her dog is inside. So I ran to try to open her door. It was locked. She had locked herself out. So I smacked the door, broke it open, which I couldn't believe I did and the heat and the intensity of the fire just threw me back. I couldn't believe how hot it was."

The neighbors hosed down the fire, while they waited for the fire department.

When firefighters arrived, they found the dog and got it out. The pug died a short time later. The dog was the woman's companion and the “love of her life,” Luque told the paper.

Improperly discarded smoking materials started the fire.

Damage was estimated at $150,000.

For more information read the San Diego Union-Tribune's story "Dog Credited With Savings Owner's Life in Fire."

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