BELMONT - A barking dog is being credited with helping a Belmont couple escape from their burning home early Monday morning.
"Actually, one of the dogs woke them up," Onslow Belmont Fire Department spokesman Clare Peers said, of Charles Turner and his wife.
"He said the smoke alarms were going but it was the dog that woke him up."
Firefighters were called to the split-level home at 100 Onslow Mountain Road at about 3 a.m., and Peers said the blaze was fully involved when they arrived. But he said it was also extinguished fairly quickly.
"It burned quite rapidly," he said. "I could see fire when I was coming across the Belmont Road but by the time I got there, there was just smoke."
A definite cause for the fire had yet to be determined as of Monday afternoon but Peers said it appears to have started in the kitchen area, likely from an electrical source.
"It certainly didn't appear to be suspicious in nature," he said.
No injuries were reported and although the shell of the house remained standing, Peers said what wasn't destroyed by fire was badly damaged by smoke and water.
Approximately 35 firefighters from Onslow Belmont, North River and Debert brigades were at the scene while members from Cobequid provided back up.
Family members were unable to be reached on Monday but a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross said attempts were being made to contact them to see what aid was required.
