Heroic Dog Helps Prevent House Fire In Fairlington

A dog’s quick action helped his owner stop a fire from spreading in their Fairlington townhouse on Thursday, September 19.

Archie, the four-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, became his owner’s, Shravani Bobde, hero when he started incessantly licking her arm in the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks to Archie’s “signal”, Bobde woke up. She tells ARLnow that when she did, she started smelling smoke. So, she got up and began searching her house for the source of the smell.

“I started investigating, trying to figure out where this smoke is coming from. Eventually, I figured out that it was in the attic,” Bobde said.

Bobde proceeded to switch off the circuit breaker and opened her windows to let the smoke out, which prevented her smoke detector from sounding.

ARLnow reports that an electrician later revealed to Bobde that a slow-burning electrical fire had developed overnight inside Bobde’s HVAC unit.

After Archie and Bobde’s quick actions, the fire was contained in the HVAC unit, which Bobde revealed is now replaced.

She attributed the prevention of a fire from spreading in the house and to adjacent townhouses to Archie’s quick actions.

She said, “I’m just reflecting that if [Archie] hadn’t woken me up and I had not turned the breaker off, the fire would have escalated. Like, it would have spread slowly.”

Furthermore, Bobde said she is thankful for Archie’s “fierce guard dog” spirit, which seem unusual for his breed. She also said that she loves Archie and that “he’s a unique creature”.

She also revealed that after the incident, Bobde, Archie, and her other dogs all went back to bed and slept through the whole thing.

“I would love for Archie to be recognized for the hero he was last night, [saving] me, his brother, Percy, and our neighbors,” Bobde said.