Fire gutted their home, firefighters save a dog
Chief Jeff Fowler of the Tabor City Fire Department pulls hose as firefighters attack the fire on Gwen and Dusty Lane Friday. (Deuce Niven, TLT)
By DEUCE NIVEN
tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com
Edward and Penny Bullock escaped the apartment constructed above an old barn east of Tabor City Friday afternoon as fire claimed most of their belongings, and nearly took one of their dogs.
Mollie, who seems a bit shy, takes comfort from her owner Penny Bullock after her rescue from fire Friday. (Deuce Niven, TLT)
“I’m so thankful they saved her,” Edward said of the Tabor City Fire Department members who performed CPR and provided oxygen to Mollie, one of two Pitt Bull dogs living in the apartment, with others who mostly stayed outside.
Chief Jeff Fowler, who lives near the home on Gwen and Dusty Lane was on scene minutes after the 5 p.m. call was dispatched, and said flames were immediately visible.
It took a bit longer for personnel and equipment from the Tabor City, Roseland and Williams Township fire departments to arrive, in addition to a Tabor City Emergency Services ambulance.
Initially attacking the fire from the ground, firefighters were told of the animals, at least one, apparently left behind. Firefighter Teg Hammonds located Mollie, just behind the apartment door. Firefighters were initially unaware the dog they saved was female.
“I grabbed him by the tail,” Hammonds said later. “I handed him to Rocky.”
Firefighter Rocky McPherson said the dog’s size made her hard to handle.
“I couldn’t carry him,” McPherson said. “He bounced down the steps. I thought he was dead.”
By the time Mollie reached the bottom of the steps, she was breathing, “a little,” Rocky said.
Several firefighters, Josh Wooster, Johnny Wright Taylor Hammond and Richard Coleman, tended to the animal.
“We gave him a few compressions,” Wooster said.
Someone retrieved rescue breathing equipment specifically designed from dogs from the TCEmS ambulance, one of many donated to fire and EMS departments across the county some time ago, Coleman said.
“It had never been used before,” Coleman said. “I ripped open the plastic.”
Mollie seemed barely response for several minutes, Coleman said.
“Then she just jumped up and seemed fine.”
Mollie was reunited with the Bullocks a short time later, sharing the front seat of a car with Penny and another of the family dogs.
“We love our dogs,” Edward said. “I’m glad she’s alright.”
For more on this story see the next Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.
