Fireman’s Best Friend

The emergency call Tuesday morning was typical of the 70,000 that had come before it--except it would be the last one for Petey the Firehouse Dog.

The old bulldog held his head high and his ears back as Engine 14 roared out of the station on a routine mission to help a man suffering chest pains.

When the firetruck returned to Los Angeles County Fire Station 14, Petey went inside and died in the arms of grieving firefighters.

Blind and barely able to walk, the friendly English bull terrier that for 12 years served as the mascot of the busy fire station was reluctantly destroyed by firefighters who could no longer bear to see him suffer.

Nearly 50 firefighters and paramedics who had worked at the station in the unincorporated community of Athens over the years were there to say goodbye to a companion that had shared the adrenaline-pumping excitement that comes from answering fire and rescue calls each day in the middle of the city.

More than a dozen sheriff’s deputies, ambulance attendants and nearby residents were also there to honor Petey.

“Everybody knew how playful and go, go, go he was,” said Fire Capt. Fred “Digger” Graves. “People think of Dalmatians as fire dogs. But in South-Central, a pit bull really fits in. He was a good friend.”

Petey, 13, was suffering from diabetes and cancer that had worsened in the last six weeks. He had to be lifted onto the fire engine Tuesday for his last run.

The 27 firefighters who work the station’s three nine-member shifts collectively decided that ending Petey’s life was the humane thing to do. It was a gut-wrenching decision.

“We’d had to pull Pete from under a truck a couple of times. Nobody wanted to be the one to run over him,” Capt. Thom Dutton said.

The same firefighters, after all, rescued Petey on Christmas Day, 1985. They had found him lying bleeding in bushes across the street from the station at Normandie Avenue and 108th Street near South-Central Los Angeles.

The dog had collapsed there after apparently being injured while being used by a pit bull owner to train other dogs to fight.

Despite his own menacing bulldog look, Petey was no fighter.

In 12 years he never bit anyone--not even playful firefighters who dressed him in mock reindeer antlers at Christmastime and in devil’s horns and a red cape at Halloween and occasionally painted a circle around one eye to make him look like the dog in the old “Our Gang” films.

Petey bestowed friendly licks on the hands of everyone from neighborhood gang-bangers to Gov. Pete Wilson and the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

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It was Hahn, in fact, who stepped forward in 1989 to keep Petey in the firehouse after fire officials ordered him removed because of fears he might bite someone.

The dog received frequent invitations to visit schools after firefighters taught him how to pause, fall to the ground and roll over to demonstrate the “stop, drop and roll.” Schoolchildren are instructed to perform the maneuver in case their clothes catch fire.

Back at the firehouse, Petey taught himself how to roll firefighters out of their bunks when he wanted to sleep there himself.

“He had three doggy beds of his own around the station, but he’d put his head on the bed with you, hoping you’d let him in,” said engineer Martin Romero. “If you did, he’d push you right out.”

Petey started every shift by leading each arriving fireman to the firehouse refrigerator, where he begged for leftovers, said Mitch Brown, another engineer at the station. On chilly days, the dog would nap atop the heavily used firetruck’s warm engine cover, he added.

When it came time for the end, Petey’s friends gathered inside the firehouse as veterinarian Lisa Harris administered an injection that caused him to relax and fall asleep. There were tears as firefighters cradled him and trumpeter Gary Kaiser of Torrance stood in front of Engine 14 and played taps and “Amazing Grace.”

Students from Washington High School across the street from the station who happened to be outside for an earthquake drill watched silently as Petey was laid to rest in front of the firehouse, next to a 1970s-era station mascot named Boots.

Assistant Principal Ann Mayeda hurried over to offer her condolences as a bouquet of roses was placed on the grave. “We’re going to send a sympathy card,” Mayeda pledged.

Firefighters said it is unlikely that Petey will be replaced because a new Fire Department rule bars stations from adopting animals as mascots.

No matter, said paramedic Derek Bart. Petey was one of a kind.

Two years ago, Bart commissioned a four-foot oil painting of Petey from a family friend, Spanish artist Pau Nubiola. It depicts the dog sitting next to a turnout coat, a nozzle and a Station 14 helmet.

Bart spent $1,500 to have lithographed posters made from the painting to give to Petey’s friends. Now he plans to hang the original painting in the station.

“Pete won’t really be gone,” he promised. “He’ll be on the wall here forever.”