THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120172
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The last thing Virgal Elks heard before he rushed into his neighbor's burning, smoke-filled mobile home was, ``If anything happens to that dog, my daughter's just going to die!''
Plumes of black smoke blinded and choked him.
``I felt like somebody put their hands around my throat. I couldn't breathe in or out,'' he said. Tearing off his T-shirt to use as a mask, he grabbed something furry - something he thought could have been a dog or a rug.
It was the dog.
Outside, he set the limp body on the ground and administered mouth-to-snout resuscitation, just as he had learned in first-aid classes at Valjar Inc., where he works as an equipment operator.
The Carters, whom Elks had never met, were overjoyed when the dog began to breathe again.
``He's the lifesaver. He's the hero, isn't he?'' Tasha Carter, 16, cooed to Tappy as she recalled the rescue.
Tasha and her parents had been visiting her grandmother, who also lives in the R & H Trailer Park off South Military Highway, when a neighbor came to alert them that their trailer was on fire. They bolted outside.
``My daughter was running in front of me, and I was yelling at her not to go in there because I knew maybe she would try,'' Brenda Carter said. ``Ever since we've had this dog, it's been her best friend.''
When Brenda Carter reached the trailer she swung the door open, dropped to her knees and tried to crawl in. But thick plumes of smoke forced her back outside.
Elks, who had been spray-painting the outside of his nearby trailer, noticed the smoke and reacted immediately. ``I still had the can of spray paint in my hand when I ran over there,'' he said, showing how the ball inside the can jangled as he ran.
Elks said he first ran to turn off two gas tanks connected to the trailer before rushing inside.
``When he brought the dog out of that trailer, it was like a tear-jerker from `Rescue 911,' '' said Danny Hysell, another neighbor.
Fire officials suspect that the fire started in a bathroom, but the cause has not been determined.
``I've had pets all my life, and I know you have the same emotions when your pet dies as when your young does,'' he said. ``You love anything that you live with in your house, whether it's a bird or a turtle or a fish.''
Everyone focused on Tappy, who was coughing with a hoarse, hacking sound she's made since the fire. On the table next to Carter were the dog's six bottles of pills. So far, medication and daily hospital visits for Tappy have cost nearly $1,000.
But she's worth it, they said. This was the puppy their daughter brought home 12 years ago, when she was 4.
This is the dog that would walk to the door at about 4 p.m. every day, waiting for Tasha to return from school - and pace if she didn't show up. This is the dog that sleeps in her daughter's bed every night with her own pillow, Carter explained.
Her mother watched as Tasha doted on her dog. She said, ``That dog was made for that child right there. It's that simple.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Tasha Carter, left, Tappy the dog and Brenda Carter, center, are
thankful that Virgal Elks, right, risked his own life to save
Tappy's. Elks rushed into the Carters' burning mobile home to save
Tappy. Tasha, 16, has had the dog for 12 years. Elks, who says he
loves animals, performed mouth-to-snout resuscitation to bring Tappy
around.
KEYWORDS: FIRE
by CNB