Tulsa Firefighters Rescue Chihuahua From Burning Home

A Tulsa woman is thankful she and her family - including their pet dog - escaped their burning house without injury Sunday morning.

Fire seriously damaged a Tulsa home in the 500 block of East Young Street Sunday morning, but a survivor tells News On 6 she is grateful to have escaped with her most precious possessions.

Kim Caldwell said angels were watching over her family as they were all asleep when the fire started.

Caldwell said she heard noises shortly after 8 a.m. and got up to investigate. After checking on her children, she glanced out the front window and "saw yellow."

"I looked and the whole front of my house was on fire," she said.

Caldwell got everyone awake and out of the house then looked for her dog, a Chihuahua named Diamond. The dog was nowhere to be found.

Tulsa firefighters arrived on scene and rescued the dog. Diamond escaped with a small burn on one of her front paws, Caldwell said.

"I'm very, very thankful to the firemen who were able to locate her," the Tulsa woman said. "She's very dear and close to my heart."

Diamond was found in her usual spot.

"She hopped on my bed and went into the pillowcase for her safe haven," Caldwell said. "That's where they located her."

Tulsa Fire Captain Keith Beck said his crews had to make a couple of passes to locate the "little feller."

"It's scary to them; they don't understand what's going on so they have a tendency to hide," he said of family pets.

In addition to the pup, Caldwell was very happy that firefighters were able to retrieve a box that held mementos of her late sister. The box contained an obituary, funeral flowers and a few of her sister's hats.

"There was some angels watching over us cause we were all in the house asleep," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Thank God that we all made it out safely."

Captain Beck said firefighters were able to knock the fire down quickly, confining the structural damage to the front of the house. Other rooms suffered smoke damage, but many items in the home can be salvaged with cleaning, he said.

The Tulsa Area Red Cross was called to take care of the family's immediate needs.