After a catastrophic home explosion, a Virginia family was heartbroken as their three pets seemingly all died in the blast — but days later, they got an unexpected miracle.
On October 15, the residence of two families in Haymarket, Virginia was destroyed in an explosion. It is unclear exactly what caused the blast, but there were reports that an underground contractor struck a natural gas line, according to a release from Prince William County Fire.
Thankfully there were no reported injuries among the residents, four adults and two children. However, one family was devastated as their three pets were unaccounted for: they believed the animals may have died in the explosion.
“Nothing’s going to bring them back unless somehow they made it out alive, which I hope they did, but who knows where they are,” resident Jarrett Struniak told NBC Washington.
But six days later, there was an unexpected update to the story. Prince William County Fire and Rescue was called back to the scene after someone heard barking coming from the debris.
Crews arrived and heard a dog underneath the collapsed structure. After a 20 minutes of maneuvering through the wreckage and coaxing the dog out with treats, they were able to get the dog free.
It was one of the family’s missing pets, a brindle pitbull named Brandy. The department wrote that despite her surviving an explosion and spending nearly a week trapped under rubble, the dog “appeared to be in good shape” and “showed her happiness of being freed by rapid tail wagging.”
The firefighters said they were “shocked” to find the dog after all this time.
“Usually when we do make pet rescues and people rescues, it’s at the time of the incident,” Lt. Mark Waldrop of Prince William County Fire and Rescue told NBC Washington. “To go back six days later and get the dog out was a great feeling.”
“Makes you feel good about your job when you do stuff like this.”
Brandy was soon reunited with her family — no doubt a silver lining for a family who lost everything in an instant.
There’s no worse feeling than thinking your pet is dead, but we’re glad that this family was able to reunite with Brandy after this miracle rescue.
Please share this news if you love dogs.
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