A DOG saved the day after a fire broke out in a Huddersfield house last night.
The female grey lurcher began barking when she saw flames rising from a chip pan in the kitchen of the Dalton home.
Two young men in the next-door room then called the fire service.
Two crews from Huddersfield Fire Station raced to the semi-detached house on Sutton Avenue at 4.40pm yesterday.
Watch commander Aldene Woodward said: “The occupants of the house had become distracted after putting the chip pan on. They were in a room next-door trying to sort out a speaker.
“There was no smoke detector, but the dog alerted them to the fire and they went in to try and tackle it before calling us.”
One of the men, aged 19, was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as a precaution amid fears he had suffered smoke inhalation.
The cooker was destroyed and the kitchen badly burnt in the incident.
But watch commander Woodward said last night that the damage would have been much worse if it weren’t for the dog.
“It was lucky that the dog was there, but not all dogs bark when they see fire,” she said.
“It could have been so much worse.”
The fire crews spent an hour dealing with the incident before knocking on doors in the area to raise awareness about fire safety.
Watch commander Woodward said: “Smoke alarms do save lives and, in this case, the householders could have been alerted much earlier if they had had one.”
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