Hero Dog Zippy Sacrifices Himself To Save His Family From House Fire

It was 2 am on Tuesday morning, the Butler family was calmly asleep when a blaze broke out in their attic. The alarm did ring but only for a short while, failing to wake the family up.

Fortunately, Zippy, their Jack Russell Terrier, quickly realized the danger of the situation and started barking. He ran around the house, barking like crazy, in a bid to alert his family to the fire.

All family members were awakened by the heroic dog and able to safely escape from the home fire. Leroy Butler, the home’s owner, realized Zippy was still inside the burning house. He tried to come back to get his dog but the house was already engulfed in flames, he couldn’t do anything but wait for the firefighters to finish putting out the fire.

By the time Leroy made it inside, Zippy had already suffocated from the smoke.

In an interview, Butler said, “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.”

“Our smart dog 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 family pet,” said Butler in an interview with Bay News 9. “He was really helpful and we’re going to miss our adorable dog.” “He did his job, we rescued him, and I guess this little real-life hero returned the favor,” added the man.

It’s unclear how the fire began. Firefighters say the blaze spread from an attic space near the air conditioning unit to the rest of the house, which was completely destroyed.