A man has described the moment he had to choose between saving his wife or his dog after a huge fire tore through his house.
Malcolm and Karen Catterall jumped from an upstairs window to escape a raging fire at their home in Walkden, Greater Manchester, on Monday night.
Karen was left with two broken heels, but tragically Pluto, their Labrador, died after running back into the blaze.
Malcolm, 53, a former serviceman in the Royal Navy, took his wife and their beloved pet to make an escape through the bedroom window.
According to Metro UK, Malcolm said he had only moments to figure out how they were all going to escape. He decided to jump out of the first floor window into the back garden, and was then followed by Karen, but even though Malcolm caught his wife she still broke both her heels.
Tragically, in the scramble to escape the fire Pluto broke free and ran back into the flames. Malcolm said:
‘At the time I had to make the call between my dog or my wife. ‘I did have hold of him but he started to panic and ran off. The problem is, he’s deaf. We were shouting him but he wouldn’t have been able to hear us. ‘I nearly went back in for him but by that time the house was full of thick, toxic smoke. ‘He was a lovely dog too and he sadly didn’t make it.’.
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