Nicole Kowalewski of Delran plays with her 7-month-old English bulldog, Riley, while visiting friends on Springcress Drive in Delran. Riley awoke Nicole Kowalewski during a fire at her family's home on Purdue Drive in Delran, so she was able to alert other family members to evacuate the burning house. PETE PICKNALLY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

My dog, he's my hero
By: DAVID MACCAR
Burlington County Times

Nicole Kowalewski's English bulldog wouldn't go back to sleep, alerting the family to a fire in the garage.

DELRAN - While sitting in a friend's backyard on Sunday afternoon, watching her 7-month-old dog, Riley, roam around in the grass, Nicole Kowalewski said the events of the previous night had not yet sunk in.

Early Sunday morning, Nicole found herself standing with her family across the street from the home where she grew up on Purdue Drive, watching it burn.

Riley is the reason, she says, that all the members of her family were able to stand on that sidewalk.

"I'm just so proud of my puppy," she said. "I don't think I would have a family. My dog, he's my hero."

Kowalewski was sleeping in the home where she lives with her parents, along with her sister, brother-in-law and their two young children, who had stayed over after celebrating Nicole's mother's birthday and Father's Day on Saturday.

Kowalewski, 29, said she usually stays with her boyfriend, because it's closer to her job in Manhattan, but decided to stay at the home with Riley, a purebred English bulldog, whom she brought to visit with his "grandparents."

"I was going to leave. Thank God I didn't or I don't think my family would be here, because I would have left with the dog," she said. "I was just chilling out, reading a book, didn't want to go to the carnival, just having an easy night, and I'm so grateful I did."

Kowalewski said she was awakened sometime around 2 a.m. by Riley's whimpering.

"I had him in the bed with me and he started whimpering and it's not like a bulldog. It's in their breed to just sleep and snore and cuddle, that's it," she said.

After taking Riley outside and bringing him back in, the dog was still uneasy and refused to return to bed.

"I was trying to get him to go back to bed with me and he wasn't having it. He starts barking and in our family room we have a door that goes into the garage and he was circling it and barking," she said. "Something wasn't right so I opened the door and I saw the flames, like, shooting out of the walls. The door was fine, it was cool to the touch, but the (garage) wall was on fire."

Kowalewski immediately began yelling and woke her sleeping family.

"I woke up my parents, my sister and my nephews. I called 911 and they said to get everybody out of the house," she said.

After fleeing the home, she and her family were standing outside the house when Riley ran across the street.

"The dog jetted across the street," she said. "We all chased after him and within seconds there was a huge explosion and the window shot out, so it was almost him saying, 'I got you out of the house. Don't you get it? Get across the street!' "

Even as she watched Riley circling by the door, Kowalewski said that at no time did she smell smoke and no smoke alarms in the house were triggered, though she said there were no smoke alarms located in the garage.

Though everyone was safe, Kowalewski said the fire seriously damaged the home. Her parents will most likely stay with Kowalewski's grandmother in Northeast Philadelphia while she plans to stay with her boyfriend in Fort Lee.

Kowalewski said the rooms where her nephews and sister were sleeping were completely charred after firefighters got the blaze under control at about 3:30 a.m.

"By the time I got everybody up, (the fire) was so big. In those moments, you feel like the fire department, you know, where are they?" she said. "They were there in less than five minutes, but those five minutes feel like five hours. It moved so fast."

On Sunday, Kowalewski was recovering and trying to make sense of everything and hoping for some sleep, but not after getting Riley a token of gratitude.

"My dad said, 'Let's go to a diner,' and I said, 'Nope, we're going to PetSmart and we're buying (Riley) anything he wants.' And that's what we did."

June 22, 2009 02:40 AM

A couple pictures of Riley as a young pup.

A few pictures of Riley's brother, Earl.