A quick-thinking bunny, named Rabbit, has saved a Melbourne
couple from a devastating house fire.
Rabbit's owner Gerry Finn had been home from night shift only 30
minutes when he heard the black rabbit furiously scratching at the
bedroom door about 6am (AEST) today.
He was shocked to discover it had alerted him to a blaze rapidly
spreading through the back of his Macleod home, in Melbourne's
north.
Smoke blackened the inside of the house, and flames destroyed part
of the roof.
Neighbours pitched in with hoses to save the house before four fire
crews arrived to extinguish the blaze.
Six days from completing a painstaking two-year renovation, the
couple was stunned but relieved to have escaped the fire without
injury.
Wife Michelle said Rabbit had alerted them in the nick of
time.
"We were both asleep. It was very lucky for both of us," she
said.
Rabbit is usually happy to roam around the house, only locked in a
cage when guests arrive, she said.
"He's just sort of an inside pet but I don't think he was very
impressed," Mrs Finn said.
"We've been renovating for two years - we started with a disaster,
and now this.
"All that hard work gone."
A jewellery-maker, Michelle's tools and jewels were also lost in
the fire.
Fire investigators believe a heater may have sparked the
blaze.
A smoke alarm had been removed from the back room ceiling while the
room was painted.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade commander Mick Swift said the couple owed
their escape to Rabbit.
But, he said, home renovations should be no barrier to fire
safety.
"The lesson to learn from this is that even if a smoke alarm is
removed it can still be put high up on a shelf," he said.
Rabbit miraculously survived 45 minutes of heat and smoke
inhalation before alerting his owners.
The six-month-old bunny will visit the vet for a check-up later
today.
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