Dog saves family from fire

A black Labrador retriever named Fargo emerged as the hero in a frightening house fire Saturday on Healdsburg's Fitch Mountain.

Barking and jumping on 21-year-old Chandra McGinnis' bed, the dog roused her from a deep sleep, enabling her and parents Michael and Carol McGinnis to escape from the hillside house with flames shooting high above the roof.

"It was so scary. It looked like nobody could get out of there," said Courtney Krakauer, a neighbor and friend of the McGinnises.

Krakauer said she heard a loud explosion, possibly from the fuel tank of one of three vehicles destroyed by the blaze at 610 Alta Vista Drive, reported at 5:28 a.m.

No injuries were reported as the family and their pets, three dogs and two cats, got out safely. One cat was found hiding under a bed after the fire had been extinguished.

Healdsbsurg fire officials said Fargo's insistent warning came about five minutes before a smoke alarm sounded in the house.

The timely call for help enabled firefighters to limit the spread of the fire within the home and prevent it from spreading to an adjacent house, Healdsburg Division Chief Steven Adams said.

Windows were breaking, paint was blistering and the adjacent house was "within seconds of bursting into flames" when firefighters arrived, Adams said.

Krakauer said the McGinnises had made a point of Fargo's acuity. "Carol said he's very smart," Krakauer said. "You know if he comes to tell you something, you better listen."

Even after the McGinnises got outside their ordeal was not over. Krakauer said that Carol and Chandra, who were looking for their other pets, became trapped in their back yard and escaped when a neighbor cut a hole in the fence.

Adams likened the dog's intervention to the screeching of a pet rabbit that awoke West Side Union Elementary School custodian Bob Lownes, prompting his discovery of a fire at the school early on Oct. 7.

Firefighters from Healdsburg, Geyserville, Windsor, Rincon Valley fire districts, Cal Fire and Santa Rosa battled Saturday's fire and brought it under control about 7 a.m. The fire spread into the attic and caused smoke and water damage to the home's entire living quarters.

Adams said the fire started in the garage, which was destroyed, along with part of the attic and three cars, two of which were outside the garage. Krakauer said the two cars "looked like they were bombed in Iraq."

Investigators suspect that an electrical malfunction started the blaze, Adams said. Damage was estimated at $500,000.

Krakauer said the McGinnises had recently repaired wiring throughout the house, except the garage.

Adams said had the blaze occurred two weeks ago, before it started raining, it could have ignited the hillside and triggered a serious conflagration. Fitch Mountain is in an area officially designated as a "high fire severity zone," he said.