A man in California defied firefighters tackling a blaze to run back inside his house and save his beloved dog.
Jose Guzman charged past firefighters as they tried to control the flames that had engulfed his house in Pala, San Diego, earlier this week.
Footage from the scene shows Guzman ignoring their pleas and running in, while the firefighters continue to hose the house down, unsure whether to go after him.
Thankfully, moments later, Guzman emerges with his dog – a pit bull named Gabbana.
By the looks of the fire, Guzman was lucky to escape with seemingly nothing more than a burn on his arm. Neighbours were also outside the building, somewhat in shock at the man’s actions and bravery to rush back inside.
Guzman, however, didn’t care about retrieving anything else from the burning building, but said he just wanted to save his pit bull.
Speaking to ABC10 News, Guzman said:
When I ran through curtain of fire where my van was and fence, I didn’t know what was behind that, decided to come here anyways.
I knew my dog was here, I knew she was here. I ran through here tried to stay in the middle, this was going, this was on fire, couldn’t see anything.
All I wanted was to get my dog, I came in here, I didn’t hesitate, I just… I had to get her, she’s part of the family.
You can watch the footage here:
Guzman, his wife and two daughters, had only lived in the house for two months, and didn’t save much from the wreckage other than what they ran out with.
He added:
There’s nothing that survived, nothing, all our savings were here.
Me and family would’ve been destroyed, we love that dog, I’m sure there’s people that would do the same thing.
Although firefighters will always tell people to never run back into a burning building – for good reason of course – luckily, this time, it had a happy ending for Guzman, and particularly for Gabbana.
No one was seriously hurt in the blaze, though the family have lost their home, two cars and almost all their possessions. The local community has now set up a GoFundMe page to help the Guzmans who have started rebuilding their lives, and thankfully still have their four-legged family member with them.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.