Barking pets save arson victims

ARSON . . . Karen Jones at the burned out window

A FAMILY had a lucky escape when barking dogs saved them from a raging fire.

Karen Jones, landlady at the Phoenix Tavern Bowling Club, Charleston Street, Hathershaw, was asleep when arsonists set fire to her kitchen window —just yards from a gas main — at around 1.15am on Friday.

Karen praised her three dogs — a cross-Staffordshire terrier and two Yorkshire terriers — for saving their lives.

The shaken 46-year-old said: “I was asleep near the room next to the kitchen and my son and his girlfriend were in the next room.

“The dogs woke me, they were barking like mad and going crazy. I got up straightaway because they’re usually not like that.

“I opened the kitchen door to find the whole room smoke logged and the window, which is protected by metal bars, engulfed in flames.

“I called the fire brigade and they arrived very quickly, they told us to get out as fast as we could.” She added: “There were no rescues but there would have been if I didn’t have the dogs.

“They were my smoke detectors. I don’t know why this has happened because we’ve not upset anyone. The firefighters told us it was arson. I hope the arsonists feel guilty because they could have been up on a murder charge.” A fire service spokesman said: “It was deliberately started and we have requested the details to be passed to the police for an investigation.”