A Duluth couple credits their dog with possibly saving their lives during a fire early Tuesday morning. The poodle mix, Clyde, woke Jack and Barb Arnold after 4 a.m. in their apartment overlooking Lake Superior at 722 E. Superior St.
The fire had cut off the Arnolds' escape route. They remained on the deck until rescued by firefighters.
"Clyde is a good dog, a life-saver," Jack Arnold, former owner of Sir Benedict's Tavern on the Lake, said a few hours after the ordeal.
According to Duluth Assistant Fire Chief Richard Mattson, the fire was reported at 4:43 a.m. Police arrived on scene first and reported flames coming from the building a half-block east of the Fitger's Brewery Complex. Mattson, who knows the buildings in the area, called for a second alarm before even leaving headquarters.
"I just didn't like the sound of it," he said.
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The Arnold home is in a line of buildings between the Portland Malt Shoppe on the west and the historic and newly restored Hartley Building on the east. The offices of the accounting firm Esterbrooks Scott Signorelli Peterson Smithson Ltd. are on the Superior Street level next to the Arnolds' garage and above their apartment.
The first firefighters on the scene found the garage and the Arnolds' residence -- located one level below Superior Street -- engulfed in flames. They also learned that the Arnolds and Clyde were trapped on a balcony on the lake side of the building. Firefighters worked their way around the building and down one level, using bolt-cutters to break through a chain-link fence to reach the balcony with a ladder.
Except for a minor cut on Barb Arnold's leg, the couple was unharmed.
"When they realized we were there, they moved quite quickly," Jack Arnold said of the firefighters. "They are great; they know their job."
Three crews of firefighters attacked the fire: One crew in the Arnold's apartment, a second in the garage, and a third on the building's roof, cutting ventilation holes and working to stop the fire from spreading to the east end of the building through the space between the building's ceiling and roof. Because of many concealed spaces throughout the building, the fire was difficult to fight.
"It burned right through the roof of the garage before we were able to knock it down," and it took more than an hour to bring the fire under control, Mattson said.
The fire extensively damaged two-thirds of the residence and attached garage, Mattson said. The accounting firm's offices suffered smoke, water and some fire damage.
Fire officials are investigating the fire's cause and place initial damage estimates for the structure alone at $250,000.
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The fire closed Superior Street between Fourth and Eighth avenues east for several hours. Firefighters remained on the scene until 11:44 a.m.
As firefighters rolled up hoses, Jack Arnold was on the scene visiting with neighbors and friends. He joked with a friend who asked if either of the Arnolds' cars in the garage were for sale. Arnold asked if the friend wanted the "tall one" or "short one," the "short one" being buried under a pile of collapsed ceiling beams and debris.
When someone commented on his good spirits, Arnold replied, "What the hell can you do? No one got killed or hurt."
