Artist honors firefighters for saving his dog, house

Edward Stratton, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
·2 min read

Feb. 26—Local artist John Wesley Willis said he has never felt the kind of gratitude as when Astoria firefighter Mike Groat emerged from his burning house holding his puppy, "Orville."

Willis thanked the Astoria Fire Department at a ceremony Wednesday with "Safe," an oil painting on wood panel of a firefighter holding Orville outside the home they saved.

In July, Willis was repairing an eave of his historic bungalow on 15th Street when the epoxy he was using ignited a roof fire. Willis grabbed a hose and tried to battle the blaze. Lucky for him, an Astoria fire crew was headed back to the station from a fire alarm at Astoria Middle School, noticed the rising smoke in the sky and went to work.

While the fire crew battled the fire, Willis realized Orville, his French bulldog and pug mix, had gone inside to look for him. He'd gotten Orville several months earlier, after his previous dog died of cancer. Willis said he tried to go into the house but was stopped by the fire crew.

"All I know is that I said, 'My dog's in there,'" Willis told Groat on Wednesday. "Less than a minute later, you come out with my dog, safe, and I just have never been so grateful for anybody helping me."

Groat said a lieutenant sent him inside to assess where the smoke was coming from.

"That's when I saw the dog running around the downstairs and tried to corral him and get him outside," he said. "Then I go upstairs, and was able to find the room that was on fire, and we got a hose line up there and was able to knock it down from spreading any further."

Willis said it took four months to repair the damage to his art studio, during which time he thought of how to thank the people who had changed the course of his life. He found an old cupboard bottom from the house, stained it and painted a fireman holding Orville in the driveway, a red fire hose snaking back into the house.

"I've been shaking my head ever since — one, at the impossible odds that they just drove by, and two, at how grateful I was that they just saved the day," Willis said.

The painting will go on display at the Labor Temple Diner & Bar, where Willis has an exhibit of cityscapes up through Second Saturday Art Walk in March. The painting will then go on display at the Astoria Fire Department.