Hero dog dies in fire after alerting family about blaze

This good boy was gone too soon.

A pet dog in Florida helped save his family from a fire tearing through their house — but tragically perished in the blaze.

“He was from bed to bed, back and forth,” owner Leroy Butler told Fox13 about his hero Jack Russell terrier, Zippy.

The grieving pet owner said a fire alarm sounded at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday but “only lasted a short ‘beep beep,’ ” before turning off.

Soon, the furniture and ceiling inside their Bradenton home were engulfed in flames.

So Zippy began barking loudly, alerting Butler and his children about the fire.

The family was able to rush out. But when Butler tried to go back in for his pup, the fire had grown too large.

“The floor in the living room was all on fire so there was nowhere for him to run out. Even if the smoke was this high. He was a short little dog. There was nowhere for him to go,” said Butler.

By the time firefighters found the dog it was too late, and he’d succumbed to the smoke.

“He was a good dog. He only did what he could,” Butler said.

It’s unclear how the fire began. The Bradenton Fire Department said the blaze spread from an attic space near the air conditioning unit to the rest of the house, which was completely destroyed.