A Texas family received an early Christmas gift when their dog was found alive in the ruins of their home more than 12 hours after it was ripped apart by a gas explosion.
The blast and subsequent fire destroyed the Diaz home on Tuesday evening, and firefighters say it’s a miracle that anyone got out alive. The force of the detonation was strong enough to blow the front door off the house. Investigators say a natural gas leak likely caused the explosion.
The family managed to evacuate quickly, but they were unable to locate their dog Diva before the home was engulfed in flames. Watching the structure go up in smoke, they assumed that Diva had perished in the fire, and mourned her passing.
Wednesday morning brought miraculous news. “I walked in, and I heard whimpering,” Jaime Diaz Jr. said. “I heard it again, and I just started tracking it. I tracked it back to the kitchen, and she was between the pantry and freezer, underneath some hampers of clothes behind the freezer, I guess, trying to find hiding.”
Diva had hunkered down and somehow managed to avoid injury for more than 12 hours until her family returned. Despite the fact that they lost almost everything in the fire, the family is thankful for the safe return of a beloved pet. “I’m speechless,” Maggie Diaz, the boy’s aunt, said Tuesday. “We’re just blessed — Christmas miracle, I guess.”
