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Fish start apartment fire, dog goes off to find help
by Robb Fulcher
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Purebred chocolate Labrador retriever Kona takes a break from her fire-fighting duties. |
David Phillips was breathing a sigh of relief, and shaking his head after his pet fish started a small fire in his Hermosa Beach apartment and his pet dog went for help to put the fire out.
"I got pretty lucky, I guess," Phillips said of the small Friday morning blaze.
The 32-year-old graphic designer had gone off to work in Harbor City about 7:30 a.m., leaving his apartment at First Street and Manhattan Avenue to the tender care of his half-dozen fish and 6-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, Kona.
Then the rowdy fish, seven-inch long African cichlides, apparently began splashing around as they have done since they grew to be large, sloshing water out of their tank onto some electrical equipment below, Phillips said.
The resulting short circuit sparked a nearby bamboo screen into flame, and Kona apparently leapt into action, calling friend and neighbor Greg Paul to the rescue.
"She went out my doggie door, out into the yard and upstairs through Greg’s doggie door," Phillips said.
Paul, who was working nights, said Kona jumped up onto the bed, waking him up enough to notice that his computer and electric clock were dead. Then he went downstairs to his friend’s apartment to trip a common circuit breaker and turn the power back on.
"I unlocked his door and opened it to a house full of smoke," Paul said. He put out the fire on the bamboo screen, which stood from the floor to the ceiling. The electrical equipment under the fish tank "was all just melted," he said.
"Kona never comes up to my place that hour of the day. She definitely had something to do with getting me to go down there," Paul said. "That dog sure is a smart one."
Phillips got a call at work about 11 a.m. and came home to find fire damage to his screen, bed and blankets, and some smoke damage to his apartment, he said. The fish and the dog made it through unscathed.
"The power was cut off to their air pump, but all the fish are fine. They’re pretty tough," Phillips said.
He began cleaning up his apartment and bought special anti-fire extension cords and a new top for the fish tank designed to "let no water out at all," he said.
"I learned a lesson," Phillips said. ER