As I write this heavy snow and blustery winds are oppressing us Northern Virginians and it seems like it was an eternity ago that the following has happened. In fact, these events transpired less than two weeks ago.

Recently, we were confronted with an emergency situation. A townhouse in Ashburn had caught fire and it was threatening to take down the entire phase of homes. As the fire grew it fire and rescue teams attempted to contain the situation and kept residents and onlookers at bay. Unfortunately, there was a problem: in the block of townhouses that were in danger of being destroyed by smoke and fire were two of our clients.

Lara, the daughter of our clients (dogs are named Kip & Duffy), attends Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Someone sent her a text that said there was a fire on her block of townhouses. Understandably, Lara was completely panicked and distraught and she called one of Woofie’s owners, Leslie.

Leslie in turn called Woofie’s other owner, Amy, and they both went over to the neighborhood. It was total chaos and they weren’t going to let us in at first but they finally let them in.

According to Amy:

Leslie and I were really worried about smoke inhalation for the dogs. Fortunately I had their [house] key with me so I was able to go inside with the person from animal control to get Kip and Duffy and they stayed with me in my car until their owner was able to get home from McLean. The main thing was that we were right there in the neighborhood and able to get kip and duffy out safely because we had their key.

Anyone with a pet should always have a back-up plan in place – a way for someone to access their home when they are not around in case of an emergency such as a fire. If you don’t have an extra key to give, make sure someone has the code to get in via your garage door and then either leave a key in the garage or leave the door going into the house unlocked.

You just never know – it was definitely an eye opening experience for us. People should always have their leashes and collars handy in the event of an emergency so someone can get the pets outs as quickly as possible. Luckily, Kip and Duffy were fine – there was only a little bit of smoke coming into the townhouse so they weren’t in grave danger but it definitely gave Lara and her parents peace of mind to know that they were safely taken from the house as quickly as possible. You never know how quickly a fire can spread.