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Gabriel Saves Our Home From Fire

Cambridge, MA., February 13, 1998. Who would have thought that a day that starts out so ordinary, would end up extraordinary. It all began around 9:00 AM. I smelled something odd when I first came down the stairs but after checking in on Gabriel in the living room, I dismissed the smell as something coming from outside our home.

Sipping my tea around 9:15, I heard a banging sound coming from the living room, but I thought the source of the sounds were coming from outside our house. We live in the city. Our streets are constantly in a state of repair. I was about to start up the stairs to the second floor where my studio was, when the phone rang. My sister, Lisa, from San Francisco was calling. I carried the phone into the dining room and sat down to talk. While we were chatting, I heard the banging sound again, so I walked into the entrance way of the living room with the phone in hand but only saw Gabriel standing next to his big litter box. I remarked to my sister, "How odd, I can't understand where that sound is coming from," and walked out of the living room back into the dining room to finish our talk. Several minutes later we hung up and I started back up the stairs to work, when I heard the banging again, this time it had a persistent sound to it, which I recognized as Gabriel's large litter box hitting the floor. I smiled and walked into the living room to see him standing next to his box, picking it up with his teeth and throwing it in the air making a crashing sound each time it hit the hardwood floor. What I little scamp I thought, as I approached him at the far end of the living room. Walking up to him I said, "You little devil bunny, what are you up to?" but then I saw what he was staring at on the opposite side of the room.

There was a flame shooting up the baseboard behind an end table. I screamed, "Oh my God, it's a fire."

I went closer and saw that the flame was coming out of a lamp cord by the sofa. I unplugged the lamp but the flames persisted. Quickly I pushed the sofa away from the fire and pulled the plug from the wall socket. Still the flame didn't go out, so I grabbed Gabriel's water dish and threw it on the flame and smothered it with an old rabbit towel. That worked and the flame was extinguished.

I called the fire department and asked them to stop by and check the electrical outlet, assuring them it wasn't an emergency anymore. A few minutes later they arrived. Captain Bokuniewicz examined the lamp cord and cautioned me about home repairs on damaged cords. We had used electrical tape to reconnect some lamp cords that our previous rabbit had chewed.  I promised to get any comprised wires in our house immediately repaired at a local electrical shop.

As Captain Bokuniewicz left he turned and said, "You know, that rabbit saved the day."

Gabriel and Captain Lester Bokuniewicz of the Cambridge Fire Department in Harvard Square.  Cambridge, MA

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