This Dog is a Fire Fan.
Assistant Fire Chief Tom Davis, of Sharon, Pa., is the owner of an English bulldog whose sole diversion is running to fires. The faithful animal, now nine years old, has been absent from one alarm during his career, a record probably not equaled by any fireman in the country. The one absent mark credited against him was when he was out of the city.
The dog’s name is Peter. Chief Davis obtained him when a puppy. The animal began following his master to[Pg 64] fires, and when he was a year old he became such a fire fiend that he didn’t even bother to wait for his owner. In the days of the horse-drawn apparatus Pete was always first at the fires. His love of the smoke and flames keeps him in the midst of the blaze while it lasts. Pete is now afflicted with troubles incident to old age. When not answering an alarm, he excites the pity of everybody by the manner in which he painfully moves about. But let the fire bell sound, and the dog is off in a flash, distancing any dog that tries to keep after him.
And if an alarm should be sounded at night, Pete goes to the fire just the same. His owner runs a hotel, but sleep becomes impossible until Pete is released from the building. Chief Davis has on several occasions given orders that the dog is to be kept in the hotel when the bell rings. Docile as a lamb on every other occasion, Pete shows great anger when an effort is made to keep him away from a fire call. If perchance the hotel doors are closed, the visitor who allows Pete to get outside has made himself forever “solid” with the faithful animal. One time when penned in alone, Pete made his way from the building by going through a closed window.
Pete’s principal duty in the days of horse-drawn apparatus was to protect the horses from annoyance by strange dogs. And he always performed the duty faithfully. During the last few years of the horse apparatus the dog population seemed to know Pete’s duty, and it was only the puppy who wanted to bark at the horses’ heads. The older canines knew better. They had learned by experience that Pete meant business when he started for a dog that happened to be annoying the horses.
The advent of the motor machinery was mourned by no one more than Pete. He was unable to lead the machinery because it traveled so much faster than the horses. Several narrow escapes have taught him to remain on one side of the street. On two occasions the fire truck has felt the tear of the emergency brakes to keep from running down the dog, for he is as dear to the firemen as though he was their own. Age is telling on the animal, and he generally returns from an alarm riding on the machine. He remains at the department until the machinery is cleaned up and ready for another alarm, and then he makes his way painfully to his home.
Some years ago the fire bell began ringing at seven a. m. and seven p. m. Pete was fooled a few times, but he soon got wise. The same is true of the curfew bell. To prove the almost human intelligence of the animal, an alarm was sounded one night at nine o’clock. Pete never moved from his favorite chair in the hotel until the bell had tapped more than nine strokes. Then he was off like a flash. On this particular occasion pedestrians who have learned to make a clear path when Pete comes along thought he was on his way to the fire. Pete sent one young man sprawling on the ground by diving between his legs and he frightened a woman half to death by a leap over her baby carriage which barred his path.
A hitch in the ringing of the bell may send the human fire fiends scurrying in the wrong direction. Not so with Pete. He seems to have a sixth sense, and he gets to the scene by the shortest way possible, many times taking an altogether different course from that of the firemen.[Pg 65]
On one particular occasion the firemen were called to Sharpsville, four miles away. No alarm was sounded, and Chief Davis was not aroused, because he is a volunteer and the fire happened at midnight. But Pete sensed that something was wrong. He began barking, and finally jerked the covers from his owner’s bed. Davis was at a loss to account for the excitement. Pete kept getting more boisterous and refused to be quieted. Davis pulled on his clothes to let the animal outside. Opening a door, he met a policeman who spoke of the fire. Davis went to the scene in his automobile, and Pete was soon left behind. But the dog wasn’t lost. He arrived at the fire as the firemen were prepared to return home. The faithful animal was so weak from his run that he had to be lifted to the truck to be carried home.
Sharon firemen answer an average of seventy-five alarms of fire a year, therefore Chief Davis and all the firemen agree that Pete is entitled to credit for his record. Council has taken recognition of the animal, and he is possibly the only dog in the United States who is exonerated from wearing a license tag.