Dog rescued from top floor of burning Haverhill home

HAVERHILL, Mass. (WHDH) -- Police rushed in to save a dog from a burning building Friday night.

Witnesses say a police officer was told a third floor tenant could be trapped inside when a fire broke out in the Fountain Street home overnight. The officer ran upstairs to find the man wasn't home -- but his dog was.

Escaping flames shooting from the basement, a family of five got out of a second floor apartment uninjured before fire tore through the third story rooftop.

At the time, no one on Fountain Street was certain whether a neighbor might still be inside that top floor apartment. So before the fire department arrived, police went into the burning home.

“The officer said that someone said they thought someone was up there so he went up and busted down the door,” neighbor Karen Iannalfo said.

The tenant wasn't home, but trapped inside the smoke filled building was his boxer named Beans.

“Police department broke the door in, got the dog out; he was in the dog cage,” neighbor Charlie Lombard said.

“He was on top of the car, the smoke was starting to get to him, so I took him and we brought him over here and into the house,” Iannalfo said.

While neighbors cared for the dog, firefighters battled flames that destroyed nearly everything left inside.

“Crews tried to get a hold of the fire but it was just too much fire -- we had to pull out,” Deputy Chief Brian Moriarty said.

Beans the boxer was reunited with his owner.

The six people who lived in the house were getting help from the Red Cross Saturday night.

Officials say the fire appears to have started with an electrical problem in the home’s basement.