Pit Bull Helps Rescue Baby And Family From Building Fire In California

A puppy in California is responsible for helping a family with a baby escape a deadly blaze earlier this month when it alerted its owner that the apartment was on fire.

Sasha, an 8-month-old pitbull, whimpered and pounded at the back door of a fourplex in Stockton, California, as flames surrounded the building on June 3.

When the dog's owner, Nana Chaichanhda, responded to her pet's cries, she noticed that a section of the family’s building was on fire.

"I open it and she runs in and starts barking at me like crazy and I was like, 'OK, this is weird. This is not like her,'" she told KTXL, a Fox affiliate in Sacramento.

Chaichanhda ran to the bedroom to grab her 7-month-old daughter Masailah where Sasha was already trying to pull the child to safety.

"She had already had my baby by the diaper and was dragging her off the bed," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, what are you doing?'"

Firefighters responded to the scene within minutes of the first emergency call to put out the blaze. A portion of the fourplex where Chaichanhd and her cousins lived has been deemed uninhabitable.

Chaichanhda usually doesn’t leave her dog outside during the night, but the break in her routine may have saved the family.

She said she hopes this act of bravery her dog displayed changes how people perceive pit bulls as family pets.

"I owe her everything," she told KCAL, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles. "If it wasn’t for her, I would have still been in bed and things could have taken a worse turn."

The pet owner said she wasn’t surprised that her dog attempted to save her daughter as the two are usually inseparable.

"She's in her bed every day," Chaichanhda said about Sasha’s relationship with the baby. "They take baths together and everything."

Chaichanhda, her family and Sasha are now staying with relatives who live in a section of the fourplex that didn't sustain damage while the Stockton Fire Department investigates the cause of the blaze.

A crowdfunding account was set up to help the family raise money for a new home, clothes, shoes and food, the GoFundMe page read.