‘A miracle’: Bearded dragon saves sleeping owner from house fire

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (KIRO) - A bearded dragon owner in Washington state is counting his blessings after his beloved pet saved him from a fire.

Donald Hale and his bearded dragon, Spike, are nearly inseparable. That likely saved both their lives May 17 when a fire broke out in their Federal Way apartment.

“I witnessed a miracle right here laying on this couch because if my dragon don’t wake me up, if he don’t wake me up, I don’t be here talking to y’all,” Hale said.

Hale came back from a 13-mile run that night and fell into a deep sleep on the couch after taking some melatonin. He didn’t hear the two smoke alarms that began going off.

But luckily for him, Spike was not about to go down in flames. He used his very long tail like a whip to wake up his sleeping owner.

“Didn’t no neighbor come and wake me up. Didn’t no alarm wake me up. My dragon woke me up,” Hale said.

Hale went to the bathroom, where he discovered the problem.

“When I opened the cabinet, from the pressure, the smoke and fire came out. I backed out… grabbed something to put the water in, came back and put it out,” he said.

He says someone poured something down the drain, causing the fire.

Now, Hale is thanking both God and his wordless companion for saving his life.

“He don’t make no noise. He don’t bark. He don’t holler. But he made the loudest noise that day I ever heard in my life by banging on my face,” he said of Spike.

As a reward, Hale says he’s going to take Spike on a vacation to the Grand Canyon.