HOLYROOD, N.L. — A dog really is man’s best friend, and that old saying was proven true in Holyrood Monday afternoon.
Bob Bennett was inside his large, barn-style garage restoring an antique car — a ’58 Ford Fairlane — when, unbeknownst to him, a welding spark ignited a blanket on the car seat that he was using to protect the fabric from the dust of the restoration work.
He was underneath the car when he heard Moxxi, his seven-year-old Belgian shepherd mixed breed, barking urgently.
When he looked up, fire was spreading through the car, and he had only “seconds to get out, and just let her go,” he told The Telegram.
Firefighters from the Holyrood Volunteer Fire Department arrived within minutes and found the garage fully alight, with fire and thick black smoke billowing into the blue sky.
Phil Bennett was having a bite to eat with his 96-year-old mother, Betty Bennett, when he spotted an unexpected vehicle at his brother Bob’s place.
“I was in the house with Mother, having lunch, and looked out the window and saw a fire truck on the street and said, ‘There must be a fire across the street,’” said Phil, a licensed, bonded used car dealer who restores antique vehicles.
"Then more showed up and I went to the back and said, ‘My God! Bob’s garage is all ablaze!’ I then ran out and couldn’t see him and feared the worst, and then he came around the corner … quite a relief,” Phil said.
“If I had to go and tell Mother we couldn’t find him and he never made it out … I don’t know…,” he said, looking toward the burnt-out garage.
The garage is behind Bob and Valerie Bennett’s house on Main Road, across the street from the Holyrood Community Centre.
The RCMP had the road closed for more than two hours and rerouted traffic through Byrne’s Lane onto the Holyrood Access Road during the fire, until crews left the scene just before 2:30 p.m. An RCMP constable took a statement from Bennett once the firefighters were done.
Bob also restores antique vehicles, and Phil said Valerie had gone to the store to pick up paint for the car when the fire started.
The couple also lost a ’79 Chevy Malibu Classic Landau along with tools and materials, and lumber his son had stored in the garage for a new home he is building.
The Bennetts are members of the Newfoundland Antique Classic Car Club and had displayed both vehicles in car shows and at weddings.
A local backhoe operator was called in by the fire department to knock down a wall and haul out the Fairlaine and the Malibu from the debris so firefighters could douse the smouldering remains.
The intensity of the fire melted siding on a house next door and on the Bennetts’ residence, and caused cracks in the windows of their home. Transmission fluid in the garage exploded in the fire and bits of red fluid were visible on the back of the house.
As Moxxi barked on her leash as she was being comforted by Bob and Phil, Valerie explained, “She’s just telling him she’s glad he’s OK and doing well. You can always replace the garage and cars, and there definitely was someone looking out for him above today and she’s the real hero here.”
As Moxxi continued to bark joyfully and wag her tail, there was no doubt she was Bob Bennett’s best friend on Monday.
