
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994                   TAG: 9406070081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: |Associated Press|
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DOG SMELLS TROUBLE; CHILDREN FLEE FIRE

NEWPORT NEWS - A pit bull's keen sense of smell may have saved the lives of five sleeping children who were alone in their house when a fire sent columns of smoke billowing up to their second-floor bedrooms.

Vincent J. Caamano, owner of the 9-month-old dog named Maxine, said she began acting strangely during a walk outside shortly after midnight Saturday. The dog refused to settle down even after he put her in her kennel crate in his living room. ``I thought maybe something was wrong in the neighborhood, and I just hadn't noticed,'' Caamano said.

He went back outside and saw flames inside the kitchen window of the apartment four doors down from his.

He raced home, called 911 and ran back to the apartment. He pounded on the door until the children, ages 6 to 16, woke up.

Caamano lost his sense of smell when he suffered a stroke several years ago, so he hadn't noticed the smoke earlier. But the smell didn't get by Maxine, who whines whenever Caamano smokes a cigarette too close to her.

As he helped the children out of the apartment, their father, Donald Perry, who is divorced from their mother and was visiting a neighbor, arrived and doused the blaze, which was burning the stove, range hood and cabinet over the stove.

``I'm just thankful that the dog kept on barking,'' Perry said.

by CNB