Thanks to the Chicago Sun-Times for this good news!

Good dog!
Pet named Hero saves mom, boy from house fire

BY CAROLINA PROCTER Post-Tribune
On a whim, little Noah Boyd named his dog Hero.
The day after Christmas, the name proved true.

Hero, a 6-month-old Labrador retriever/Dalmatian mix, woke Noah in time for the boy and his mother to escape their northwest Indiana home before fire destroyed it.

“We named him Hero, and now he’s a hero. It really is incredible. The dog saved our lives,” Melissa Boyd said.

Noah, 4, and Melissa lost nearly all of their belongings in the fire at their home on Morgan Street in Lake Station, including Noah’s freshly unwrapped Christmas presents. Everything was destroyed — even the refrigerator door and kitchen cabinets are melted.

The mother and son are staying with Melissa’s mother. But their prevailing thoughts are with Hero and how the playful pup led them to safety.

‘He’s a pretty tough dog’
Around 4 a.m. Tuesday, Melissa Boyd awoke to Noah screaming her name. She opened her bedroom door to 4-foot-tall flames and smoke so thick she could barely find Noah’s door. Hero — whom the Boyds adopted from the Porter County Humane Society six months ago — had sensed danger and began licking Noah’s face. Noah woke up and, following the fire safety tips he learned in school, screamed for his mother.

Noah and Melissa ran outside and called 911. When firefighters arrived, they pulled Hero from the house and watched him collapse on the lawn, vomiting and wheezing from smoke inhalation. They gave him an oxygen mask. After an hour, Hero was back on his feet, albeit with a burned throat and nagging cough. He’s on antibiotics and still wheezes when he barks.

Ron Goode, the Lake Station fire chief, was impressed by Hero’s resilience.

“Boy, he’s a pretty tough dog,” Goode said.

‘Smoke detectors save lives’
Fire investigators think a short circuit in a coffee maker started the fire, said Goode. The home didn’t have a smoke detector.
Fires also destroyed two other Lake Station homes without smoke detectors this month.

“If you don’t have a smoke detector in your home, you should have it,” Goode said. “Smoke detectors save lives.”

In this case, Goode noted, Hero the dog saved lives.

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