Poodle helps firefighters find sleeping teen inside burning house

WEST JORDAN — A family escaped from a burning home Friday thanks to an alert passerby and a pet poodle.

A man driving by the home, near 3200 West and 8500 South, saw flames on the side of the house around 3 a.m. He stopped and started pounding on the home's front door, yelling for everyone to wake up and get out, West Jordan fire officials said.

The mother and two children inside the home heard the pounding and got out safely. The mother said she thought the person yelling at the door was her 19-year-old son, but he was actually sound asleep in the basement — and the house was filling up with smoke. 

Firefighters arrived and went in the home to start a search, at which point they were met by the family pet, a poodle named Ted. Ted started barking at the firefighters and then ran down the stairs.

The firefighters followed, and Ted led them to the sleeping teen. Firefighters said they eventually would have found him, but Ted helped them get to him more quickly.

Investigators have not yet determined a cause of the fire. Damage was estimated at $40,000.

— Randall Jeppesen