INDIANAPOLIS — Rockne, a 4-year-old red heeler, was bred to round up cattle. Early Wednesday morning, he helped round up his family inside their burning home on the southeast side of Indianapolis.
The fire was reported around 1:15 a.m. Sept. 11 in the 8000 block of Retreat Lane, near Acton and Maze roads in the Acton neighborhood. Two firefighters had to be taken to the hospital after the ceiling of the home collapsed on top of them.
Fire crews say the smoke alarms never went off because the fire started outside and moved up to the attic, bypassing detection from the alarms.
Instead, it was the family's dog that let them know they were in danger.
"He's spunky, not a big people-person, but he's always on the lookout for things, hence his barking commotion last night, which obviously it was a good thing," said Trey Boor, who lives next door.
That barking woke up the husband, who woke up his wife and two daughters. They made it out of the home uninjured, along with their two dogs.
Boor wasn't home when the fire started, but he got a call from his wife.
"She said, 'The neighbors' house is on fire. I'm taking our little one outside,'" Boor said his wife told him.
When Boor got home, IFD crews were already there. So were his neighbors, watching their house go up in flames.
The heat was so intense, the siding on the Boors' house melted.
"You don't realize how scary it is until it actually happens to you," Boor said.
Firefighters faced their own scary moment, when, at one point, two firefighters were trapped on the second floor after the roof came down on top of them.
"Basically, they said the roof was completely on fire, and it landed right on top of them," IFD Battalion Chief Rita Reith said. "The joists, the drywall, the timber, everything, the flooring and it all came down and it was all on fire. It was all ablaze."
IFD says both firefighters were able to get out but had to be taken to the hospital, where one remains with serious injuries. The other has already been released.
Fire officials say the fire started because of a cigarette put out in a plastic planter on the back porch.
For his part, Rockne the red heeler, named after famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, has proven to be something of an unwilling hero, turning his back to the cameras who came to get his picture.
"Rocke deserves a lot of treats today because he was ... he definitely was a life-saver for sure," Reith said.
IFD's victims assistance unit is working to help the family, who was displaced by the blaze.