Dog lauded for saving man's life in fire dies


Thursday, February 12, 2004

By Ken Kolker
The Grand Rapids Press




ALPINE TWP. -- After saving a man in a house fire -- even after hiding from firefighters in a smoke-filled bedroom -- Shaq seemed fine.


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The high-strung black Labrador retriever barked at firefighters before being carried outside and romping in the snow. He wagged his tail. He even posed for a newspaper photo for a story about his heroics.

A day later, Shaq died at a veterinarian's office of apparent smoke inhalation.

"He saved a guy, that's pretty cool," said veterinarian Dr. Susan Schoan, who treated Shaq on Tuesday. "It's just sad he ended up dying."

Shaq lived with Joseph Noordyke, who was watching the dog for a friend. At 4 a.m. Tuesday, the 5- or 6-year-old dog jumped on Noordyke's bed and went snout-to-nose with his new master.

Noordyke, who figured the dog wanted to go outside, instead discovered flames and smoke in the kitchen of his home at 518 Clark St. NW in Comstock Park.

The 46-year-old street maintenance worker for the city of Grand Rapids suffered burns to his head when he escaped through the kitchen, but Shaq would not leave the bedroom, he said. Firefighters would not let Noordyke back inside to save the dog, which stayed in the room until after the fire was out.

Shaq growled at firefighters, who wrapped gauze around his snout to keep him from biting. Noordyke and his sister-in-law, Tammy Noordyke, coaxed him from under a bed and carried him outside.

Firefighters said Noordyke likely would have died in the fire without the dog. The home did not have working smoke detectors.

The fire, which appears to have started with an electrical problem on a kitchen counter, caused $45,000 damage to the home and its contents, Alpine Township Fire Chief Ron Christians said.

Christians said Shaq seemed fine when the family "whisked him out of there." If firefighters would have noticed he was gasping, "we would have attempted to give him oxygen."

Tammy Noordyke said she and her husband took the dog to the vet's office that morning after he started vomiting.

Shaq was suffering "respiratory distress" when he arrived at Weisner Innis &Schoan veterinarians, 3425 Plainfield Ave. NE, Schoan said. The vets injected him with cortisone and gave him antibiotics and drugs to clear fluid from his lungs. They put him on oxygen, she said.

X-rays of his lungs showed "they were just horrible," Schoan said. "There was ... a lot of black stuff."

But his condition seemed to improve late Tuesday, and he was moved to a cage for the night, she said. Schoan has treated other animals for smoke inhalation, and they all survived, although none after staying inside a house so long, she said.

"He was a wonderful dog, so sweet to treat, real gentle," Schoan said. "When we told him to lay down, he would lay down." Unlike many dogs, he did not fight against the oxygen mask, she said. "He was a typical black lab, just a sweetie."

The next morning, he died suddenly. "He got up, laid back down, and then he was gone," Schoan said. "There was no pain or anything, just too much damage in there."

Noordyke is living with his brother in Grand Rapids until his house is repaired. Friends, family and city co-workers are holding a benefit for him from 4 p.m. to midnight Feb. 20 at Grand Rapids Independent Union Hall, 917 Bridge St. NW.