Saturday 16th January 2021  

Dog drags eiderdown from bed to raise fire alarm

10th January 1969 - Loughborough Monitor

Dragging the eiderdown off his master's bed, a three-year old Boxer dog raised the alarm about a fire downstairs. Senior surveyor Mr Charles Cooper of 24 Soar Lane, Quorn groped downstairs early on Tuesday morning to find the dining room ablaze and filled with smoke

A hole was burnt in a corner of the floor near the firegrate and furniture severely damaged in spite of the work done by Loughborough firemen.

Intense heat in the room baked a dish full of apples, melted the glass in a pair of !6 guinea driving glasses and ruined a three piece suite, chairs and a table, rugs and decorations. Mrs Cooper said that if it hadn't been for the dog, the damage may have been much worse, for the fire had already started to cut through the ceiling. Buddy tore off the eiderdown at about 3.30am, "I could smell smoke," said Mrs Cooper, "and my husband went downstairs. He couldn't see a thing in the dining room - just a black fog of smoke."

The night before Mrs Cooper had lit a fire in the dining room so that her husband could keep warm while drinking a cup of coffee. She went to bed. So did Mr Cooper. The next morning Mrs Cooper said she thought the fire "must have somehow got under the floorboards."

Submitted on: 2010-07-28 Submitted by: Kathryn Paterson Artefact ID: 898 Print: View artefact in printer-friendly page or just on its own.