Heroic canine saves neighbor from potential explosion

A house fire two years ago may have inadvertently saved an Upper Pine River resident from an explosion on Dec. 14 this year, when the firewood inside a shed mysteriously ignited, setting the structure ablaze only a few feet from a propane tank.

Dozer, a 7-year-old Lab mix owner Mike “Stretch” Greer adopted from the La Plata County Humane Society as a puppy, escaped that house fire with his family back in 2020, though fire rescue crews were unable to save the structure.

“We lost everything,” Greer said. “It was Father’s Day evening, and my barbecue exploded. It caught my house on fire, and it burned to the ground.”

Greer said Dozer was in the house when it began to burn, though Greer managed to get the dog outside before it was too late.

“It was pretty scary, and Dozer was there when that happened,” he said. “My little puppy was there in the house when it caught on fire. I think there was some PTSD from that, but no one was hurt or anything. We were safe.”

Though Dozer was not harmed in the fire, the trauma of the event left him with a keen sensitivity and anxiety to the smell of smoke and the sight of flames.

“He gets agitated around any open flames or the slightest smell of smoke,” Greer said. “He gets very leery if he smells it.”

That agitation and trauma Dozer suffered from the house fire may have saved a life and an Upper Pine River property in the early morning of Dec. 14. At 1:33 a.m., Dozer woke Greer’s fiancée, Sydney Morrison, dragging her from bed and leading her over to the nearby window. Morrison was not sure what she was looking for at first, until she noticed the flames and smoke billowing from a nearby property.

“He woke my fiancée up and wouldn't stop until she went and looked out the window,” Greer said. “He was running up and down the hallway, and she finally looked out the window and saw the flames.”

Morrison immediately woke Greer, and the two called 911 before heading over to their neighbor, Elizabeth Jon’s house, which was a quarter of a mile away.

“We jumped into the truck and hurried down to her house,” Greer said. “Woke her up and got her out as quickly as we could.”

When Greer and Morrison arrived, the couple’s panic was amplified by the burning shed’s proximity not only to the house, but to something that could potentially cause a disastrous explosion.

“The shed was totally engulfed in flames, and it was burning right next to a propane tank, so we knew we had to get her up and out of there, along with whoever else was in the house,“ Greer said.

Fire and rescue units arrived around 1:45 p.m. and quickly extinguished the flames, though the shed was not salvageable. Jon’s house was spared and only the surface of the propane tank had been burned.

“It was cold as hell out (when rescue units arrived),” said Upper Pine River Fire Protection District Fire Chief Bruce Evans. “I think it was minus one on my car thermometer when I pulled up there.”

Besides the frigid weather, the property’s location also caused a slight delay in rescue efforts.

“It’s all the way at the end on the far reaches of our district, so it took us a little bit to get out there,” Evans said. “It’s kind of the no man’s land between us and Durango Fire.”

Evans and those who work for the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District laud the quick actions of Greer and Morrison, and especially a 7-year-old rescue dog named Dozer, positive that the canine’s early warning could very well have saved Jon’s life.

In honor of Dozer’s efforts, the department presented him with an early Christmas present: a box of Milk-Bones with a big red bow on it.

“For Dozer’s quick reaction in alerting his owners, we felt he deserved a box of biscuits for his actions,” said Evans at an impromptu ceremony with Greer and Morrison in attendance.

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