INDIANAPOLIS — A pit bull named Ace is being hailed as a hero after waking his deaf teenage owner during a house fire on Wednesday, according to the Indy Star.
Firefighters responded to the home around 1 p.m. Wednesday. Upon arrival, flames were coming out of the garage.
Nick Lamb, 13, who is deaf, was sleeping in the home at the time. Two-year-old Ace alerted Nick and woke him up by licking his face.
“He was thankful that Ace entered his room and licked his face until he woke up,” Indianapolis Fire Department Capt. Rita Reith said in a media release. “The boy quickly covered his nose and mouth with his T-shirt and exited the rear of the house.”
With Ace by his side, he went out the back door of the home and called 911.
“I couldn’t hear anything because I had my cochlear implants off. … My dog Ace smelled it,” Lamb told the Indy Star. “I just wanted to get out.”
The family’s cat was located by a firefighter inside the home and is expected to be OK.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.