4-Year-Old Boy Dies After Running Into Burning Home To Save Pet Dog

A four-year-old boy died while attempting to save his pet dog from a house fire in Iloilo City in the Philippines on Tuesday.

According to Fire Marshal Christopher Regencia, the fire began from a rented home Tuesday night. All the family members, including the boy, identified as Daniel John Peralta, his siblings and parents managed to escape when the fire began. However, the boy rushed back into the burning home to save his pet dog. The boy’s father and the firefighters tried to save him but the fire had grown by then.

After putting off the blaze, the firefighters recovered the body of the boy and his pet dog from the living room of the home. Officials said two homes were completely destroyed in the fire while one was partially damaged.

“It might be that the Peraltas were not able to put out a lighted candle they used because they had no electricity,” Regencia said, adding that almost 20 families were left homeless because of the fire.

In a similar incident in Florida earlier this week, a woman ran into her burning home to save her two dogs. Bernice Parisi found smoke coming out from her home when she returned after work. She immediately rushed into the home to save her dogs.

“I ran in and got the dogs out. They come first. They’re my babies,” she said, adding that the dogs meant everything to her since her husband died a year ago. "If I found them dead when I went in there, I would have wanted to die. Those dogs are my life right now,” she said.

Meanwhile, officials were trying to investigate the cause of the fire.