A family dog is being hailed a hero for waking up a sleeping couple and their son as a fire raged in their Long Island home early Monday, authorities say.
Kevin Herlihy, the 24-year-old son of Susan and Michael Herlihy, says he was in bed with the family's 6-year-old English bulldog, named Roxanne, when the dog began barking around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
He awoke to a raging fire he believes started in an office on the first floor of his family's two-story home on Dumbarton Drive in Huntington. Herlihy woke his parents up and the three of them, as well as Roxanne, got out of the house unharmed.
Nearly 50 firefighters using seven trucks battled the blaze for 90 minutes before it was brought under control.