HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — When Robby Rooss’ year old mixed Dachshund named ‘juniper’ has to go, she has to go, but when she awakened him to go outside in the wee hours of the morning Thursday, he spotted his neighbor’s house on fire and ran to help her.
“I could hear her. I didn’t see her yet, but she was like, ‘Help! Help!’” said Rooss, “So I was like, ‘Where are you?’ I thought she was inside and she was already sitting on the street, and she was like, ‘My babies! My babies!’”
Watch as investigators describe the fire
The victim was referring to her three cats---Rosebud, Marvin and Trouble who remained inside.
She would later tell investigators that she had just turned on her oxygen concentrator---a machine, which filters the air making it easier to breath, when she heard a loud ‘pop’ and flames shot throughout the room.
“Typical air around us---oxygen is just 21 percent. With this home oxygen, you’re looking at 100 percent concentration,” said Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire, “It can lead to rapid spread of the fire. In can get in your hair, your clothing, even your furniture.”
Paramedics transported the victim to the Shock Trauma Center suffering from smoke inhalation and first-degree burns.
But as she awaited help, the victim had thought little of her own condition.
“She kept like walking towards the house, because the cats,” Rooss recalled prompting him to block her from returning to the burning house to try to save her pets whose fate had already been sealed, “That was her big concern was the cats, and the 911 operator was like, ‘Do you know what room they’re in?” I was like, ‘Honestly, I don’t think it matters at this point cause like I said, the windows were shattering. Flames were spewing out of every window. The front door.”
