By Todd Masson
NOLA Media Group
BALTIMORE — Many hunters will tell you, the thrill of a duck hunt or quail shoot is spending time with their dogs and watching the trained animals do things that sometimes boggle the mind. Dogs can’t build a rocket ship, but they’re pretty smart, and most will do anything for their owners.
That’s certainly true of Polo, a Baltimore dog who perished Sunday in a fire while protecting the 8-month old child of his owner, according to the local NBC affiliate, WBAL.
The station reported the infant, named Viviana, was trapped on the second floor of a home engulfed in flames. The child’s mother, Erika Poremski, tried desperately to reach her crying baby, but the flames and intense heat made that impossible.
“I just heard her crying, and I couldn’t get to her,” she told the station. “I tried really hard; everyone in the neighborhood tried. They were kicking the doors in and kicking the windows out. I couldn’t (get her out). Nobody could.”
Poremski was covered with burns from her attempts to rescue her daughter.
When firefighters arrived on scene, they entered the house and went straight to Viviana’s room. There, they found Polo covering the baby with his body to protect her from the flames.
“She only had burns on her side because of it,” Poremski told the station. “He stayed with her the whole time in the bedroom, and wouldn’t even come downstairs to get out the door.”
Paramedics revived Viviana, who suffered burns on her face, arm and side. Polo, however, did not survive the ordeal.