'Hero' Dog Wakes Neighbors During Thanksgiving House Fire In NJ

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — It was a neighborhood effort to pull several young adults to safety when a pre-dawn house fire broke out Thanksgiving morning in North Middletown.

The fire occurred just before 6 a.m. in a home on the 100 block of Ocean Avenue. Everyone inside the home was fast asleep, said neighbors.

Arthur Kaylor said as soon as he and another man saw the flames, they kicked the door down and screamed into the smoke-filled home.

"I was screaming, 'Anyone in the house?!'" he said. "I found (one person in his mid-20s) passed out in the living room 10 feet from heavy flames and smoke. We helped pull him to safety as a third man held the door. It was a combined effort."

"It was about 5:45 a.m. We were fast asleep," said Dawn Mauceri, who lives in the home right next door. "Suddenly, I heard this ferocious barking from my dog, Cooper; I mean, he was barking in terror. I thought, something is really wrong for him to bark like that."

Mauceri said she got up and went to the window. Still half asleep, she opened the blinds and saw the house next door "was entirely covered in flames."

Mauceri said her husband, Anthony, raced next door and tried to knock down the door to get the man they knew who lived there. He did not know Kaylor and others already saved them. Middletown firefighters had to pull her husband away from the burning home, she said.

"We thought his friend was dead in the house," she said.

It turns out the young man who lives there happens to be an East Keansburg volunteer firefighter. The Mauceris said they saw him Thanksgiving Day hours after the fire, and he was "just stunned, in a state of shock" said Dawn.

She said his home appears to be completely destroyed.

Fire officials say it's still unknown what started the fire, but the flames were so great that the siding on the Mauceri's home was melted off by the heat. She also said the impact of the fire blew out her windows. Also, all the electrical lines connecting to her home sparked from the flames, and her electric lines had to be completely replaced.

Dawn and Anthony were able to still host Thanksgiving in their home, but Dawn said her son, 10, is "very traumatized" by the fire.

"He thinks we are going to lose our home," she said. "He's very upset."

Dawn also said her husband, Anthony, already decided earlier this fall, inspired by his neighbor, that he was going to sign up to be a volunteer firefighter with East Keansburg Company. He just never thought he would have to run into a burning home so soon.

And she credits Cooper with saving the whole family.

"We never would have woken up, I never would have looked out the window," she said. "It was a very scary night. Our dog is a hero."

Here is the GoFundMe for the man whose home was destroyed in the fire: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hel...

Original Patch story: Thanksgiving Day Fire Breaks Out At North Middletown Home

Subscribe to Patch for local Middletown news: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.Baldwin@patch.com