A San Diego freelance photographer searching for his missing cat instead found himself rushing around a house fire in Vista, helping rescue a family dog before first responders arrived.<\/p>\n
Gilbert Gonzalez said he was flying his drone Friday morning looking for his cat, Thomas, when he spotted smoke rising in a neighborhood on Calera Street.<\/p>\n
When Gonzalez arrived, he realized he had beaten first responders to the burning home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smoke was really dark it was really thick it was hard to breath. \u201c<\/p>\n
Hearing noises inside, Gonzalez kicked in the front door and went in to check for anyone trapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got real low is anybody in here is anybody in here does anyone need help. \u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t want somebody to be inside who didn\u2019t. Who wasn\u2019t able to get themselves up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sheriff\u2019s deputy soon arrived, and together they found the family\u2019s pet pug outside the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot the Pug had the pug for a little bit a second later he darted off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dog ran back into the burning house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure when he saw the open door it was home sweet home and took off back in the house,\u201d Battalion Chief Brendan Halle said.<\/p>\n
Firefighters arriving on scene rescued the dog and confirmed no people were inside.<\/p>\n
Vista Fire and Rescue crews quickly extinguished the flames. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, though officials do not suspect arson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelping is always great that comes with the caveat of personal risk,\u201d Halle said.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez experienced that risk firsthand. After kicking in the front door of the smoke-filled home, he began having trouble breathing and became disoriented.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as that door opened smoke just hit me in the face. I took too much in. \u201c<\/p>\n
He was treated at the scene and later said he was feeling better, though he was disappointed he missed capturing some of the dramatic moments on camera.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez also had a message for his missing cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas if you are out there come back come back home we miss you. \u201c<\/p>\n
Once the fire was out, firefighters found the remains of another dog inside the home that did not survive. The family was not home when the fire started.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego freelance photographer searching for his missing cat instead found himself rushing around a house fire…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":687087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,18013],"class_list":{"0":"post-767530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa","19":"tag-vista"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116503366086541000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}