Man Reunited With Dog Assumed Dead In Fire
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A dog that was presumed dead emerged from a burned-out Plymouth apartment building three days after it was destroyed by fire.
"It wasn't barking. It wasn't yelping. It just wanted to get out of there," said Captain Thomas Evenson of the Plymouth Fire Department.
Evenson was part of a team of seven Plymouth firefighters who went back into the Plymouth Oaks Apartments Thursday afternoon. The place caught fire Monday night.
They were searching the apartments for missing pets.
"It was an intense fire," said Evenson, knowing that a dozen departments responded to it and even a firefighter and two other people were hurt in the fire. "It seemed next to impossible. There was so much smoke, so much fire. To survive that would be incredible. The chances were against, you will, the pet, and we didn't think we'd find the pet alive."
Jerey Hegman, who lived in the complex, lost his apartment when it caught fire. It was on the third floor of one of the buildings, and fire completely destroyed it.
He called Plymouth Fire Department and told firefighters about his lost pet, Tucker, a rat Terrier.
"So we went over there, gave it our best shot," said Evenson. "Everything was frozen solid. We had to pick at it with axes and tools. It was hard work."
They picked through debris, like clothes and toys, and then the team found something else. They found Tucker!
"That was a pretty cool feeling," Evenson said. "I really was amazed, surprised, excited -- all those emotions when we found the dog first of all. And then to find out it was alive was pretty incredible."
Tucker survived without food and water for three days. The apartment has no roof and the wind was whipping through it, too. These were some of the coldest nights of the year.
Tuckers paws were frozen to the floor. He had a few scratches, too, and blisters on his feet.
The 6-year-old dog was reunited with his Hegman who immediately took the pup to a veterinarian for an exam. Tucker is doing well. That veterinarian gave Tucker some medicine.
"Once the owners got there, gave it some dog biscuits, and that thing was jumping around and happy and kissing people! It was pretty excited," said Evenson. "To have an ending like this, pretty nice feeling, pretty good feeling!"
Hegman's second dog was rescued from the fire on Monday night, but the dog had to be euthanized.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
