'He said there’s a fire, get out now’: Dog saves owner from burning house

A Christchurch man will be forever grateful to his dog Moose who woke him during a fire.

Peter Mcmeekan from Bishopdale has spoken to the NZ Herald, saying he was sleeping in his bedroom when Moose started barking.

“It was different to how she usually barks. Usually she runs downstairs but she just stayed inside my bedroom, looking at the hallway barking,” he told the Herald.

The 43-year-old initially thought Moose was alerting him to a burglar before his neighbour called.

“He said: ‘There’s a fire, get out now’.”

Mcmeekan ran outside to see his childhood home on fire and smoke billowing from the garage.

The garage, built into the home, sat directly beneath his bedroom.

“If Moose hadn’t woken me up, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” he said.

Armed with two garden hoses, Mcmeekan started battling the blaze himself with two garden hoses until he realised his dogs were still trapped in the backyard.

“I broke a hole in the fence and managed to get my dogs out.”

The garage contained petrol containers, camping gear with gas bottles and spray paints, all of which exploded, intensifying the fire.

“I also realised the boat, which I knew had petrol in it, was close to the garage door, so I tried to pull it down the driveway,” he told the Herald. 

“Things were really starting to go boom ... By that point, the smoke was just too much so I couldn’t do anything.”

The house was in flames when firefighters arrived to the February 25 fire about 9.30am.

The blaze was mainly isolated to the garage area. Mcmeekan said the rest of house has been deemed unliveable until the proper repairs are made.

It’s not Mcmeekan’s first hardship. In 2018, he was involved in a serious car accident.

He now lives with a traumatic brain injury, which has led to frequent migraines and a speech impediment. He also struggles to walk, due to leg damage sustained in the crash.

• A Givealittle page has been set up to help Mcmeekan.