The Butler family was fast asleep when an unanticipated fire started in their Florida home. Their alarm system shut down quickly, failing to complete its task to wake the family up.
However, their Jack Russell Terrier named Zippy was there to courageously save the night!
The little companion rapidly came to the realization that danger was coming their way, so he began barking around the house. Zippy didn’t stop until the family was awake and Leroy Butler, the father of two, living in his parents’ house, said: ‘He was a part of the fire alarm, he was barking. We just made it out the door while everything was collapsing, with a big plume of black smoke fire was everywhere.’
The little hero reportedly ran directly through the blazing flames in order to alert his owners, who then managed to escape to safety as a result. After getting out of the house, however, Leroy Butler grasped the fact that Zippy was still inside the burning home.
He then tried to get back to the house in order to get Zippy but the house was already swamped with smoke and flames. Consequently, the man could not enter the house and had to wait for the firefighters to do their job first.
Sadly, when Leroy managed to get inside the house, he found Zippy hidden under a bed, suffocated from the smoke.
Leroy Butler surveys the damage to his parent’s home in Bradenton. A fire broke out around 2. When the smoke alarm died, their dog went room to room to make sure the family was up. Unfortunately Zippy didn’t make it. The fire trapped him in the home @FOX13News #Bradenton pic.twitter.com/lJ3Yv4WCvW
— Kim Kuizon FOX 13 (@kkuizon) September 17, 2019
Leroy said to Fox News that:
“The floor in the living room was all on fire so there was nowhere for him to run out. He was a short little dog. There was nowhere for him to go.”
In another statement to Bay News 9, Leroy Butler added the following:
“Zippy was just a little Jack Russell terrier, a little black and white dog we adopted 3-4 years ago and he’s just been the house pet. He was real helpful and we’re going to miss him. He did his job, we rescued him, and I guess he returned the favor.”
Firefighters reported that the fire had started in the house attic. However, The Bradenton Fire Department is still working on determining the cause of the fire.
A video regarding this story is available for you to watch below!