Fayetteville family escapes fire, credits 'hero dogs'

Firefighters responded to the 7600 block of Shillinglaw Circle, off Cliffdale Road, at about 2 a.m.

"There was no smoke in the house until we started opening up the doors and started taking care of the fire. Then the smoke started coming in," said homeowner Nathan Brauer.

Brauer and his daughter Lorna were home when the flames erupted.

"(My dad) was in the kitchen trying to put it out himself with a pot of water. The next thing you know, he is coming upstairs saying, 'Get dressed. Get your phone. Call 911,'" Lorna Brauer said.

The Brauers said that because most of the smoke was in the garage, the smoke detectors in the home did not go off, but something else did.

"My dogs are my heroes," Lorna Brauer said. "When they tell you a dog's sense of smell, sense of hearing, their eyesight is a thousand times better than a human’s...it's no lie."

The father and daughter credit their two Siberian Huskies, Jasper and Jericho, with saving their lives. The said the dogs smelled the smoke and started barking like crazy.

"Honestly, I think that if the dogs would not have been barking like that then we would have a lot more damage," Nathan Brauer said.

Brauer said the fire was started by a discarded cigarette left in an ashtray on the porch.

"I love these dogs more than ever now that they saved not just the house...they saved us," Lorna Brauer said.