Santa Clara fire

[dianer]

I don't know how accurate this report is. We usually attend this show, but my daughter had her Bat Mitzvah this weekend, so we didn't make it.

Two dogs pulled from burning van outside fairgrounds show

By Mark Gomez

mgomez@mercurynews.com

Posted: 02/22/2011 11:37:53 AM PST

Updated: 02/22/2011 02:49:32 PM PST

Fans attending a large dog show at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on Monday morning are being described as heroes after helping pull two dogs out of a burning van.

The unidentified Good Samaritans eventually got the badly burned dogs out of the van, which was parked outside the pavilion hall on the fairgrounds, according to Mike McBride, a supervisor with the fairgrounds.

"There was definitely some heroics by people in the show, reaching into a burning van and pulling those dogs out," McBride said.

The dogs, who suffered major burns and smoke inhalation, were rushed to a veterinarian, McBride said. Officials with the fairgrounds and San Jose Fire Department did not know the dogs' condition. The animal hospital where the dogs are reported to have been taken would not verify any information.

The San Jose Fire Department received a call just before 10 a.m. that a van was on fire at the Fairgrounds, according to fire Capt. Steve Forman. The owner of a large van was "trying to solve a mechanical or electrical problem" with the van when other people smelled smoke and noticed the van was on fire, Forman said.

As people began to dial 911, fairgrounds staff attempted to put out the blaze with small extinguishers, McBride said.

The blaze moved from the front to the back of the van, where two dogs were housed inside a kennel, Forman said. The blaze melted the kennels and badly burned the dogs.

Once the dogs were pulled out, veterinarians attending the event began treating the dogs, Forman said. The two dogs, who are believed to be wire-haired terriers, were rushed to a veterinarian hospital in the Peninsula with a burn unit, McBride said.

Two people who attempted to pull the dogs out of the burning van suffered minor burns to their hands, Forman said.

Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869

[bradl]

Absolutely horrifying. Also from the Mercury News:

Two of the five dogs were badly burned, and the other three were taken to a veterinarian and immediately released, said Santa Clara Valley Kennel Club assistant show chairman Maggie Peate. Peate said the owners of the two more seriously injured dogs wanted privacy and did not expect to release any further information about their dogs.

My heart aches for the dogs and their owners.

[kintra]

One of the dogs was actually a Cairn - according to his owners facebook posts, he seems to be doing better now. What an awful thing to happen though