Fire officials: Dog alerted family to fire in Rockville home

Makea Luzader
·2 min read
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ROCKVILLE, Md. (DC News Now) — An unexpected hero is being credited for saving two people after a fire broke out at a Maryland home on Monday.

“I mean she’s a wonderful dog, she’s very smart but I never thought I’d be in this situation,” said Diane Miller.

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Diane Miller said she was upstairs with her napping 14-month-old granddaughter when she heard a banging on the nursery door. It was her 8-year-old yellow lab, Molly.

“Molly started hitting the door with her paw, and hitting it, and hitting it and hitting  it,” Diane Miller explained.

When she opened the door, Diane Miller smelled smoke.

“I looked and the smoke was pouring out of the floor and the side of the house,” Diane Miller said. “Molly went downstairs to our next level. I went down with the baby, I put [Molly’s] collar on and she was pulling us outside. She kept pulling as hard as she could to get us out the sliding glass door.”

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The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department responded to the home on Green Pasture Drive around 4:10 p.m. Spokesperson Pete Piringer said that it started as an electrical fire in the basement after the neighborhood had a power outage.

Miller believes an electrical box on the side of the home is to blame.

She also noted that no smoke detectors went off, despite smoke filling the home from the basement up. Molly was the one who alerted the family.

“I love her so much and she saved our lives and without her, the baby would be dead, I would be dead,” Diane Miller said.

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“It’s a miracle they got out, it’s a miracle I got home in traffic, and Diane with the baby and Molly,” said Charles Miller, Diane Miller’s husband. “I know it’s going to be stressful for the next six months when I’m dealing with the aftereffects of it.”

He said he’s still processing what happened, but he’s grateful is family is all okay.

Fire officials estimate damages are more than $200,000.

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