“He was just watching T.V., sort of dozed off and fell asleep and his dog woke him up,” Stewiacke fire chief Donnie Richardson said, regarding a fire at the Main Street West residence of Mike Cameron.
“He said there was smoke in the house and his dog sort of dragged him out and led him the way out.”
Cameron was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation and released.
After arriving at the scene, fire fighters found one of the man’s cats in distress inside the home and provided oxygen to bring it around.
“It was almost to the point where it had succumbed to the smoke,” Richardson said. “We brought the cat out and a couple of our members gave it oxygen and revived it and brought it back. He was pretty happy about that.”
A second cat ran off when fire fighters entered the home. All of the man’s pets were saved, however.
Richardson said the fire call came in around 8 p.m., with some members remaining on site until about 1:30 a.m.
Although Richardson said the older, two-storey home received little structural damage, Cameron did lose a lot of contents in the blaze.
And while the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Richardson said if would “definitely” be considered accidental.
“The fire started in a different room from where he laid down,” he said.
The chief also said there is nothing to suggest the fire resulted from a cooking accident.
“There was nothing on the stove.”
In addition to the Stewiacke department, fire fighters from Brookfield, Hilden, Shubenacadie, Indian Brook and Milford responded to the blaze.
