This heart-pounding bodycam footage proves that dogs are indeed man’s best friend and are always worth saving.
A California police officer put his life on the line to save a poor dog that had been left behind in a house fire. The fire took place back on July 10th, and officer Adam Calderon valiantly responded to the emergency call.
Once he arrived on the scene, the homeowners had already vacated the burning house and told Calderon that their dog was still chained up back behind their home. They allegedly attempted to free their pet but became worried that the fire would soon close in and they left it behind.
The officer jumped into action and ran into the adjacent neighbors yard to see if he could get through to the dog in distress. Bodycam footage shows Calderon jump the fence and call out for the family’s chained up pet, eventually spotting it and running over to help.
Once the officer gets to the dog, he attempts to remove the chain from the wooden fence itself, but had no luck. He then tries to pull the dog in his direction, yet the pet doesn’t budge due to it being scared by the chaotic situation.
The whole time Calderon is working to free the dog, he is also attempting to comfort the dog by talking to it, while simultaneously giving radio updates to his team of responders. At one point, the officer breaks through a portion of the fence and yells back to the dog:
“It’s ok. It’s ok. You gotta jump over! Come on!”
Clearly the fire and the smoke has shaken up the family pet, because it won’t budge, even with the officer pleading with it to jump through the fence. Calderon knows that he doesn’t have much time at this point and needs something to cut the dog loose.
He frantically runs over to a neighbor’s house and asks for bolt cutters. They don’t have any, so he instead grabs some hedge trimmers. Calderon decides that it’s worth a try and runs back to the chained up dog.
When he returns, the dog had attempted to jump through the hole in the fence that the officer had created, but was still hindered by the chain connected to its collar. Calderon quickly gets to work with the hedge trimmer, exerting himself and battling to cut through the metal with a tool that is meant for small, fragile branches.
Miraculously, the chain finally breaks and the dog is able to move freely. Calderon then leads the dog to safety, and once they were a good ways from the burning home, he tells the dog:
“I told you that you could trust me.”
The California officer is now being hailed as a hero, and rightfully so. Calderon never gave up and valued the pet’s life as he would a human one.
