Posted on 11/22/2008 2:15:39 PM PST by Daffynition
ZEPHRYHILLS - Henry Ben Morgan wanted to save his pets.
Instead, he ended up in handcuffs and at least three dogs and a cat perished in the blaze that destroyed his home.
Just before 11 a.m. today, firefighters were called to 35615 Chester Drive and arrived 12 minutes later, finding the home engulfed in flames.
At some point, Morgan's wife arrived, followed by Morgan a few minutes later, said Pasco Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Mike Ciccarello.
Morgan started running for the house. Sheriff's deputies and firefighters yelled for him to stay back, but he kept going toward a window.
Deputies and firefighters, according to a report, restrained him so he could not jump through the window and into the blaze.
Morgan, 41, was forcibly removed from the scene, the report states, and was arrested on charges of obstructing the extinguishment of a fire, a felony, and resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor, respectively.
He was being held at the Land O' Lakes Jail this evening. Bail was set at $5,150.
About 20 firefighters continued fighting the one-alarm fire but couldn't save the animals or the home, Ciccarello said.
"It looks like a total loss," he said.
The family of five, including two teenage girls and a 7-year-old boy, are being helped by the American Red Cross.
The fire began between a garage-turned-bedroom and a utility room in the small ranch home. The cause was a worn extension cord that had been run under a door, Ciccarello said.
No one was injured.
However, what you said or implied was not consistent with the reported situation, or with any situation in which there are other people around besides the pet owner. If a human being runs into a fire, it’s nearly certain firefighters will attempt to rescue him, and it’s fairly probable that other random civilians would attempt the same.
Would you run into a fire to rescue a stranger’s dogs, or just your own? How about a human being you don’t know?
As a volunteer fire-fighter I am called on to do all those things.Why are you so insistent about this? Has anyone asked you to do any of the above? Here's the question back at you...Would you?
I’m asking because you brought up the issue, and I think it’s philosophically interesting. Would I put my life at stake for (anyone’s) pets? No. For people I don’t know? I hope so, if there were nobody more suitable available in an emergency.
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