By Alison Ecklund

Larson Newspapers

With her long, satiny black coat and stunning good looks, Lunna looks as much a show dog as she does a rescue dog.

Now a Sedona woman is calling her a hero, after the 3-year-old Bernese mountain dog helped to save her four dogs from her burning home.

On May 3, around 9 p.m., Lauren Williams followed her daily routine and let Lunna out before bed.

Usually the big dog runs free in the yard, while Williams waits at the door, but that Sunday night, Lunna ran barking to the neighbor’s yard and wouldn’t come back.

With a big, white truck parked in her driveway, Williams couldn’t see what would have pulled a typically obedient dog away, so she ran after her to look.

That’s when she saw flames shooting from Emily Danskin’s house and wood porch.

She didn’t know if Danskin was at work so she ran back home and yelled for her friend Bo Yrabedra to come outside and determine the seriousness of the fire.

Yrabedra found a hose already attached in Danskin’s front yard and sprayed down the fire. After 10 to 15 minutes, the flames were out, he said, but he kept the water on it in case it was spreading inside the walls.

“We kept the hose going because it was smoky,” Yrabedra said. “We told [dispatch] to send someone anyway because we knew there were dogs in there.”

When the Sedona Fire District arrived they made sure the fire hadn’t extended into the attic, which it hadn’t, Fire Marshal Will Loesche said.

The fire was caused from an oversized light bulb on the porch, Loesche said. When the bulb melted it started the fire, which spread down to the porch then burned back up the wood siding of the house.

“The fire was actively taking hold of the house,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the dog and the man with the hose, it could have been a lot more damage.” Instead, damage was held to $1,000.

After calling 9-1-1, Yrabedra called Danskin’s house, which transferred to her cell phone.

Danskin picked up while attending an astronomy event close by.

“You better get home quick. Your house is on fire!” she heard come across the line.

“Thank God that was followed by ‘Your dogs are safe,’” she said.

Danskin has four dogs and is caring for one foster greyhound. Three of her dogs and the greyhound were home during the fire.

She raced home to find fire crews, Williams, Yrabedra and Lunna outside her salvaged home and was surprised to see her dogs, whom she admits can be “loud and intimidating,” were trying to kiss the firemen.

“Afterward, they all wove in and out between the firemen’s legs and leaned up to kiss each one,” she said. “They knew those men were there to help them, not to cause harm.”

To thank Lunna, Danskin prepared a gift basket with toys and treats, and was sad to see Williams, with the neighbor’s new guardian angel in tow, move across the country just days later.

“I get tears in my eyes thinking of what could have happened,” Danskin said. “It didn’t hit me until the next day what I could have lost. The house would be the least of it.”