Boys Save Dog from Carport Fire
By Nelsy Rodriguez of The Desert Sun
October 27th, 2003, PALM SPRINGS -- Two Palm Springs boys saved a dog from a carport fire on Sunday afternoon. At 3:39 p.m., Palm Springs Fire Department responded to calls of what reporting parties said was an explosion in a carport at 807 Las Vegas Road.
“We just heard a boom and then we saw the smoke,” said 16-year-old John Martin.
The fire was extinguished in less than 10 minutes. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known by fire officials.
“It was just a regular fire in a car in a carport,” said Brett Pendleton, of the Palm Springs Police Department.
But as firefighters turned the scorched wood soggy with water, the small crowd watching readily pointed out the two who saved the black and brown speckled puppy.
Tenants of the house were not at home when Martin and his friend, Trenon Stagg, also 16, rushed to a friend’s house to be one of several callers reporting the fire. The two then went back outside to watch the smoke and heard a dog whimpering.
Martin and Stagg said they saw a dog chained in the carport hiding under a car, which was on fire. “We broke the chain with a shovel,” Stagg said, holding the dog by the links that remained of its chain as it wagged its tail and licked neighbors’ hands.
“We took him to our friend’s house and wet him down,” Stagg said.
