Dozens of puppies are doing well after they were rescued from a Danbury pet store following a fire in a neighboring building Thursday night.
The store’s owner is crediting their survival to witnesses who rushed in to help.
”All the puppies are doing excellent. Everybody is absolutely fine,” said Puppy Love owner Sean Silverman.
The 86 puppies are resting up after they were temporarily relocated to another nearby business that opened its doors when they saw the animals outside in the cold.
The Danbury Fire Department said the fire started in a storage facility belonging to Danbury Powersports around 9 p.m. Thursday. That building is just feet from the pet store.
"We didn’t really sustain a ton of damage. There was actually no fire in the store. It was the building behind us, so right now, hopefully, to be back in there by tomorrow,” Silverman, who has owned the business for more than 20 years, said.
Because of the quick action of firefights and good Samaritans, all the puppies made it out.
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”You just do whatever it takes to get in, so I took the wrench and wherever it was hanging on, I just bashed it down. As soon as it folded over this door like this, I climbed up, went through,” explained Dan Cook, who was the first in the building when he saw the flames and realized there were animals in danger.
”It was just a human chain and people were just pulling them out. We had them all in the street. Like the street was closed and then we just brought them right here. We just wheeled them right to here and in,” Silverman said.
The owner of Stanziato’s, a neighboring restaurant, opened their doors to the dogs.
”We have a space that we’re expanding into that’s empty right now, so we had it available. The pups were cold outside, so we brought them inside. We counted them. All 86. It was a great experience. It was unreal,” Mauro Tropeano said.
Silverman said he and his staff will not forget the generous gesture, nor the bravery of those involved in the rescue.
“Everybody came together. It was absolutely incredible. Really. You couldn’t thank the people enough,” Silverman said.
