Neighbors help save Virginia woman’s dogs from burning home

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A day that could’ve taken a turn for the worst ended with a story of a community coming together to help their neighbor in need.

Thanksgiving was interrupted for one Virginia neighborhood Thursday afternoon.

One woman, of Norfolk, declined to give her name or show her face, but told NewsNation’s affiliate WAVY she was making holiday dinner when she looked out her window and saw a large cloud of smoke.

“I was cleaning the house, making dinner, and I looked out the window and this large cloud of smoke was pouring down the street,” she said.

She quickly jumped into action.

“So I ran outside and I heard the woman who owned this house yelling help,” she said.

Her neighbor’s home was on fire.

She said she called 911 after the homeowner told her she got put on hold by dispatch.

The Norfolk Fire Department said they responded to the house fire around 12:30 p.m.

However, the woman said there was more work to be done as they waited for help to arrive.

“She had three dogs — one of them was a foster and he was deaf and blind so I grabbed my cat-carrying crate and put her dog in it and we sat right there in that driveway and basically watched the fire department go inside to try and save her other dogs and her house.”

But she wasn’t the only neighbor to step up and help.

“The neighbor across the street from me — who’s next to the house that was on fire — she noticed as well and came outside to help,” she said. “There was one guy who ran inside the house to see if he could find the dogs. I didn’t think that was very smart of him but it still spoke a lot to his character that he was willing to help this stranger he never met before to go and try to save her dogs.”

She said the situation was even more shocking because that was the first time she had met her neighbor.

She hopes they can meet again under better circumstances.

Norfolk Fire said even though the homeowner and her dogs were displaced by this fire, they were thankfully not hurt in the flames.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.