Indianapolis, IN (WXIN) — A boy is alive thanks to his pit bull that woke him up from a nap when his house caught fire.
Nick Lamb, 13, was born without the ability to hear, so the smoke alarms couldn’t wake him up, but his two-and-a-half year old pit bull Ace did. This isn’t just a story about the bond between a boy and his dog.
“Comes in my room a lot, and likes to play with me, and then, we also play out in the backyard sometimes, too,” said Nick.
In Nick’s eyes, Ace is a hero.
“Yeah, he saved my life,” Nick said. “I love him a lot more.”
Nick had gone down for an afternoon nap Wednesday and took out his cochlear as he normally does before he goes to sleep, and he didn’t hear the smoke alarms beeping.
Ace did, and knew he had to get Nick’s attention.
“He came in my room and started licking my face and then I woke up because I thought he wanted to go out back or something,” he said.
It was much more urgent.
“We got outside, I grabbed a couple of things, my cochlear, my phone and then him,” Nick said.
He was texting his mother, who was at work.
NICK: Mom there is smoke in the house.
MOM: What? Call me and get out.
NICK: I ran outside it is coming from the garage and the whole house is covered in smoke.
MOM: Get out…fire department is on the way.
NICK: The house is on fire.
“You could see our house from the highway, so when I drove by it on the highway it was a little worse because I could see all the fire trucks,” said Lindsay Bernard, Nick’s mother.
There’s almost nothing left of their house, but their lives were spared, all thanks to a sharp-minded pit bull.
“Pit bulls get bad reps, he loves his family,” Bernard said. “If it wasn’t for him, I could have lost my little boy.”
The family cat Pixie was also rescued from the fire, and they say she’s expected to survive. Investigators will look at the cause, but it’s thought it may have been an electrical fire.
