Neighbours brave Nottingham fire as they leap into action to rescue 12-stone dog

Neighbours braved 'popping canisters' as they pulled a 12 stone dog to safety while flames ripped through a garden in Stapleford.

The American Akita had been inside the house in Denver Court, Nottingham when a fire broke out in the garden outside on Thursday.

A total of nine emergency calls were made to Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service just after 6pm to reports of a garden fire (30 June).

Neighbours formed chains to tackle the flames with buckets of water and garden hoses until fire services arrived at the scene.

Gemma Bower, 31 who lives on Denver court explained she could smell rubber at first. She spoke of the moment when she realised the home of her friend was at risk.

"A kid that lives around here came up to me and told me about it," said Ms Bower. "I rang the woman who owns the house as I know her, and all she said was 'my garden, my garden'.

"I ran around and, by the time I got there, there were already two or three neighbours getting hosepipes. There were around 20 people or so doing everything we could in the end, people were panicking like mad at first."

It was then when Ms Bower, a self-employed cleaner, leapt into action alongside another resident to rescue the dog. She said: "The fire got really high, I think she [the friend who lives in the property] had gas canisters there, and the flames were higher than the house, there was a lot of stuff built up back there, too.

"She's only really got access out the back of her house, but me and a friend ran around the front because we needed to get her dog out. It's an American Akita that weighs about 12 stone but we managed to get around the front and pulled him out.

"As we were doing that, we could hear what sounded like petrol or gas canisters popping in the back garden."

She continued: "The woman had gone back in to get some things, and we shouted for her to get out, that we had the dog and that we needed to go.

"It was hectic for the whole street but everyone was chipping in and doing what they could - as weird as it sounds, it was nice to see in obviously what were bad circumstances.

"There's a lovely community here, I've been here for 11 years or so and everyone talks to everyone. If you go to the shops, you can't just nip out as you'll always end up seeing someone you know and speaking to them, which I really like."

A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Services said: "Following a fire investigation, we have been able to determine that the fire at Denver Court, Stapleford, had started in the garden.

"Due to both the severity of the fire and the dry ground from warm weather, the fire spread very quickly. But after many hours of hard work from firefighters they managed to extinguish the fire before it spread even further.

"The fire did spread to the house. However, this could have been a lot worse - windows and outside guttering were damaged. We are continuing to work with partner agencies to get to the bottom of this incident."

Three main firefighting jets were used, with 19,000 litres of water needed over the course of six hours to extinguish the blaze.

Around 10 properties were evacuated at the height of the incident. No injuries were reported.

Police investigating

Nottinghamshire Police have confirmed they are now investigating the incident. Officers are asking anyone with information to come forward.

Police Inspector Mike Ebbins said: "Emergency services attended a house in Denver Court, Stapleford, at around 6.15pm on Thursday (June 30) following reports of a fire.

"Nobody was injured during the blaze, which was put out by firefighters after causing limited damage to the outside of the house.

"Police are in the process of investigating what may have caused the fire and so would ask anyone who witnessed what happened or has any information to call 101, quoting incident 679 of June 30."