On November 9, 2013, a house on the 300 block of West Summit Avenue in Elmhurst, Delaware, caught fire and claimed the life of 36-year-old Nate Lewandowski along the lives of Lewandowski’s seven of eight Pit bull pets.
The fire started around 1:00 p.m. Lewandowski ran out of the burning home but soon after he entered the property again, attempting to rescue his eight dogs trapped inside the home – two adult dogs and six puppies.
“I looked outside the window and I saw this haze and just this smoke and it just looked odd because I couldn’t even see across the street from my house. Then all of a sudden I heard a boom,” Victor Caruana, a neighbor, told ABC Local News.
Unfortunately, Lewandowski and seven of his pets were inside the home at the time of the explosion.
Firefighters arrived at the scene and worked tirelessly to control the fire. They were able to pull Lewandowski from the home, but unfortunately there was nothing they could do to save him or his pets.
Lewandowski died at Christiana Hospital.
The only survivor was Saddie, a female, adult dog and mother of all puppies, who had escaped to the back yard.
The mother dog was in shock and in distress. She tried to re-enter the home, probably to save her pups, but unable to do so, she was left to run anxiously in the yard.
State fire marshal investigators spent hours at the home collecting evidence and looking for what might have caused the fire, but until the caused is undetermined.
Saddie is being cared by a neighbor.
