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From KTVU: An early morning fire at a marijuana grow house in Oakland resulted in the discovery and rescue of a litter of pit bull puppies Saturday.
The Oakland Fire Department received calls around 9:30 a.m. of a structure fire at 1938 104th Avenue in Oakland, according to Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Adrian Sheppard.
Fire crews arrived at the house 2 minutes later to find Smoke coming from roof.
No one appeared to be home so firefighter made a forcible entry inside and quickly determined the source of the fire.
Sheppard said crews had the incident under control 10 minutes later, though the situation was complicated by the fact that the house was being used to grow marijuana – the electrical wiring was not up to code and a pit bull was discovered inside, making the circuit panel difficult to access.
Crews later discovered the dog was protecting a litter of puppies, just hours old.
“Units did, when they made entry, find a pit bull and a litter of pups, which had probably been born within the last 24 hours,” said Sheppard. “So it was a good rescue for them, at least in that regard. “
Sheppard could not provide much information on the pot grow operation, but described it as “medium-sized.”
No one was injured fighting the fire, according to Sheppard. Oakland Animal Control arrived minutes after the fire was extinguished to take the dogs back to a shelter and care for them. The mom and pups were wet and covered in soot but are doing well in Oakland Animal Services’ “quiet room” to rest and recuperate.
Update: Very sad news… The mother dog became very sick on Sunday. She delivered a still born puppy that had obviously been stuck inside of her for a long time. She had a high fever and was bleeding. After discussions with our veterinarian, it was decided that the most humane thing would be to put her to sleep. Sadly, the puppies had stopped nursing and were not doing well (probably from the smoke inhalation) and could not be saved.
