Debbie Credidio’s dog, Jackson, likes to chill out in the bathroom to escape the heat. That may have saved the 3-year-old Newfoundland’s life Monday.
When fire broke out in the morning at Credidio’s Farmingville house, Jackson jumped into the tub and put his nose in the drain. Firefighters Vince Egbert and Edgar Trejo pulled aside a shower curtain and found the dog “actually sucking air out of the drainpipe, which is an old-school thing that a fireman would do,” Egbert said.
“That’s what really saved him, was getting his snout as low as he could and finding the drainpipe.”
Egbert said the 130-pound dog was trapped by intense heat for 40 minutes. “For a dog to make it through something like that was amazing,” he said.
The Credidio family was devastated when they realized Jackson was trapped, said Michelle Scotti, 28, of Patchogue, who is engaged to Credidio’s son, James, 35.
After the family pleaded with firefighters to save him, Trejo and Egbert were given 10 minutes to search the house. The fire was out, but the roof appeared unstable. The firefighters had just about run out of time before they checked the bathroom, Egbert said.
“He kind of picked his head up when he saw us,” said Egbert, a Farmingville volunteer and New York City firefighter. “He didn’t want to come with us. He was happy where he was. He was scared to come with us.”