A Northern California man interrupted his morning jog to rescue a stranger’s pets –including two dachshunds, a rabbit and a cat – from a burning home.
The man is identified by KSBW to be Paul Murphy. He was on his way out for a run November 6, when he noticed smoke rising from a Scotts Valley residence in California.
Murphy used his Ring surveillance system, which allowed him to contact them even though they weren’t there.
‘I saw him running back and forth,’ homeowner Courtney Polito told WTHR 13. ‘So I answered it and he said, “Hello, do you see there’s smoke coming out of the top of your house?”’
The smoke alarms started sounding, and Polito shared her house access code with Murphy. Murphy ran in to rescue the dogs, bunny, and cat.
Paul Murphy, a jogger identified by the name of Paul, communicated to homeowners through their Ring surveillance system, after seeing their house on fire.
After hearing smoke alarms sounding in their house, the homeowners allowed him to enter and observed as he ran inside to rescue their cat, rabbit, and dachshunds.
Ring’s camera caught him running around the house in an effort to save furry strangers.
If he hadn’t stepped in to help, the story couldn’t have had a happy ending, she said.
‘The fire department said 10 more minutes and the house would have been gone,’ she said.
Murphy may not have been there to rescue the animals, but firefighters say he did leave before arriving at the rescue site.
Courtney Polito, the homeowner, credited the stranger for saving her house and animals’ lives
Her husband, Tony, told the outlet ‘it takes a special kind of person’ to enter a stranger’s burning house to rescue pets.
It’s not clear what Murphy did with the animals, but he was gone by the time firefighters arrived to extinguish the blaze. The garage was evacuated from the flames.
Scotts Valley Battalion chief Andrew LoFronco claimed that this incident was unique for his division.
Courtney Polito stated that she would give the rescuer “a hug” for saving the day
Tony Polito said ‘it takes a special kind of person’ to enter a stranger’s burning house
‘This is the first for our agency where someone uses a Ring doorbell system to alert 911 and the homeowners,’ he told WTHR.
Courtney Polito stated that she wanted to express gratitude for the kind Samaritan.
‘I want to give him a hug,’ she told the outlet. ‘I’ll bring him to lunch. I’ll bring him dinner. It’s hard to say… It’s hard to know what I should say…
‘My kids, my husband, we would be devastated if we lost our pets, let alone our home.’