A garage fire in Virginia Beach had to be sprayed down an hour after it started.
There was damage to much of the rest of the house; it brought tears to the woman who lived there.
But fortunately because of a neighbor, the home owner has her family fully intact.
"I heard the dog barking inside, so I went around to the side door and then the back door and saw the back door was unlocked," said John Pienkowski, who lives a few homes down.
Pienkowski handed Sam off to another neighbor, but wasn't done yet.
"I went back inside just to see if there was anyone inside, so I checked the ground floor, ran up the stairs, checked all the bedrooms and the bathrooms," said Pienkowski.
No one else was inside, just Sam who's back with her owners now and doing fine.
The garage had a lot of stuff in it, even though it appeared the fire was completely out, crews worried smoke and fire was still brewing inside and had to pick apart the garage's contents and spray it down with foam.
For the woman and her adult children, it's a stressful time, they've lost so much but not everything--they've still got Sam because of their neighbor being the "cul-de-sac hero."
"I know if it was my house, I'd be thankful that there were neighbors around to go inside and check or be concerned enough to go inside and check," said Pienkowski.
