Dog is a hero after saving apartment residents from fire | News

A Beaverton family calls their dog a hero for saving them from a teenaged fire starter.

The golden shepherd, Marcus, woke his owners up with barking as their apartment building, the Birchepointe Apartments on Northwest Cornell Road near 179th, began to burn.

Several families can thank Marcus for saving their lives because the fire that started just after midnight Thursday was moving up the building when Marcus’ owners discovered it. They were sound asleep when Marcus starting acting unusual, which is something Kelli Landis said she and her husband had never seen before.

“Had he not been barking and just sounding different than he usually did, we could have just still stayed asleep,” Landis said. “But the thing was that he was being so loud. And he even came into the bedroom and was growling and just making a lot of noise. And that got us up."

Her husband ran outside their apartment and found the side of the building on fire which had been set right where a fire extinguisher was located. He got the attention of neighbors and together they used pots, pans and trash cans full of water to douse the flames.

Firefighters were particularly concerned the fire was set at an exit point and at the location of the fire extinguisher. Had the teenager, who has been arrested, been more successful, residents would have had a very difficult time getting out of their apartments.

“It was definitely a little disturbing and unnerving to think that somebody would deliberately do this and deliberately set a fire extinguisher on fire so that we couldn’t put it out,” Landis said.

Landis and her husband just moved to Beaverton from Hawaii where they adopted Marcus from the Humane Society. They contemplated leaving him behind because of the expense but they couldn’t bring themselves to say goodbye. It was a decision that may have saved their lives.

“He was a rescue dog. “We rescued him and now he’s rescued us,” Landis said.

Even with the quick response the fire caused $5,000 in damage. A 13-year-old neighbor is in custody. He’s charged with reckless burning which is a misdemeanor. That’s a lesser charge than arson but is essentially the same type of crime. Thanks to Marcus there were no injuries.

Neither Beaverton police nor Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue will say how their investigation led to the teenager.

Marcus was rewarded with a new toy ball, a rawhide bone and a lot of love.

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