Buddy the German Shepherd Leads Trooper to Fire at Owner's House | Gimundo

Buddy the German Shepherd Leads Trooper to Fire at Owner’s House

Recently, a German shepherd dog named Buddy helped officials reach a house fire by leading a state trooper there on his own.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on April 27 2010

Stock photo

While most dogs (ours included) spend most of their time lying in bed or begging for scraps of food, every now and then, we hear a story that shows the strength and drive they’ve really got when they’re tested. This is one of those stories.

When Ben Heinrichs was working on his truck in his Anchorage, Alaska workshop, a spark landed in a puddle of gasoline and ignited. His clothes caught on fire, and he ran outside to roll in the snow and extinguish them. As soon as he had, he realized that his German shepherd, Buddy, was still inside the burning shed.

Heinrichs ran inside to rescue Buddy, who was fortunately unharmed. Then he told his dog, “Buddy, we need to get help.”

Buddy took his best friend seriously. Immediately, the dog bolted for the woods, and started running towards a local road. Before long, he came across an Alaska State Trooper, Terrence Shanigan, who was unsuccessfully attempting to navigate the back roads to locate the flaming building, after receiving a call from one of Heinrichs’ neighbors.

When Shanigan saw Buddy run in front of his car and look at him, then take off down a side road, he had a hunch that the dog knew what he was doing. He decided to follow Buddy. A few times during the drive, Buddy turned back to watch the car, as if to make sure that the Trooper was still on his tail. Check out the raw video footage here.

Within a few minutes, Buddy had guided Shanigan to the Heinrichs’ residence. The workshop had burned to the ground, but because Shanigan was then able to act quickly to gather volunteer firefighters, the Heinrichs’ home was barely damaged.

“He’s my hero,” Heinrichs told Anchorage Daily News. “If it wasn’t for him, we would have lost our house.”

For his courageous actions, Buddy was rewarded by the troopers with an engraved dog bowl. We’re sure Heinrichs filled it up with plenty of his favorite treats.

Filed under: Animals and Pets, Heroes,

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