A house fire in Ocean County (NJ) injured a K-9 officer, while his owner and police partner watched, feeling helpless.
Now a community is rallying to help a family rebuild.
By the time flames shot out of the home on Ship Avenue in Beachwood, the occupants were safely outside, but two dogs, Lola and Keto didn’t make it out. The latter is a K-9 officer.
The dogs’ owner, Pine Beach Police Officer Russell Okinsky, was at work when he answered the scariest dispatch call of his life.
He said investigators told him the fire’s cause is likely electrical, starting in a bedroom where his young nephew sleeps. Also in the house were the officer’s fiancee, siblings, more nephews and his mother, Anna, who luckily was awake at 1 a.m. on Saturday and ordered everyone out.
The officer’s dogs were hard for firefighters to find. Lola was finally pulled out from under a bed. She was gravely injured and died not long after.
Keto was freed from a cage and seemed to be in bad shape, but he rallied at the animal hospital.