SCRANTON — Before sunrise Tuesday, a man slept but his dog stirred as smoke began to fill their home on Finn Road in Benton Twp.
Michael Murphy’s chocolate Labrador, Izzie, sensed the danger. She didn’t howl. It was more of a whimper.
Izzie was scared.
Murphy noticed the dog’s distress as he woke.
“She never comes into my bedroom,” he said from Ale Mary’s at the Bittenbender in Scranton 12 hours later. “She was crying, not barking … that’s what I (first) remember.”
An uneasy feeling. A dog crying. A smell of smoke.
“I didn’t understand what was happening,” Murphy said. “Why couldn’t I see anything? Why was everything so black? What was that smell? I’ve never smelled anything like that in my life.”
Fire. Got to get out.
“I was asleep in a room full of smoke,”
he said. “I had to be inhaling that poison.
I don’t think I would be here if it weren’t for that dog.”
Murphy, 52, lost pretty much everything, including his phone, journals and pictures.
But he and Izzie were safe.
Murphy recalled the chaos of the harrowing day from the restaurant after the Red Cross set him up at the Red Carpet Inn in Scranton, about 20 miles from his former home.
As the blaze intensified, Murphy headed for the back door with Izzie.
“The living room was engulfed in flames,” he said. “The heat was unbelievable, like a blast furnace. I couldn’t get to my phone and I was four feet from it.”
Murphy ran to a neighbor’s home, who called 911.
Crews arrived at 855 Finn Road in Benton Twp. around 6 a.m. as flames engulfed it, and worked to quell the blaze for about three hours, according to the Fleetville Volunteer Fire Company.
Murphy and Izzie escaped, but two cats, Tiger and Cali, were unaccounted for Tuesday night.
“We turned away from the fire and immediately headed back through the bedroom out the back door,” Murphy said. “The only thing I could think about was if we stayed here, we would die.”
Murphy attempted to rescue his cats, but struggled to navigate through the kitchen to the mud room, where they stayed each night.
“I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “The smoke was so dense and thick, I almost had to feel my way to the mud room door, which was only about 12 feet away.”
He kicked open the door, but didn’t see his cats. He couldn’t see anything.
The fire is under investigation by a state police fire marshal, but the cause doesn’t appear to be suspicious, police said.
Izzie is staying with Murphy’s mother and sisters in Scott Twp.
The show of support from his neighbors in the hours following the tragedy overwhelmed Murphy.
“When I say we lost everything, it’s not an exaggeration,” Murphy said. “The house burned down to the foundation.”
Kristy Kozlansky and her husband, Mike, made Murphy breakfast and took him to get a photo ID.
“He’s a super outgoing, fun guy with a laugh you’ll never forget,” Kristy Kozlansky said. “He’s always welcoming and very nice. I wanted to help out as much as I could.”
Other neighbors donated clothing and gift cards.
“I’d suspect, in time to come, I’m not going to think of this as a time of loss — I’m going to think of this as a day of giving,” Murphy said. “The outpouring of support, both material and emotional, from the people around me has been extraordinary. Without them, it would be a nightmare.”
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