A Pit bull named Diamond will be honored Wednesday by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Las Angeles. She will be presented with the 29^th Annual National Hero Dog award for saving her family from certain death in a fire in October.

Darryl Steen and his two daughters were asleep when the fire broke out and would have died of smoke inhalation if Diamond hadn’t started barking.

Steen was able to drop his 9-year old daughter from a 2^nd story window to safety but he couldn’t find his 16-year old. She was hiding under a mattress in her room and had passed out from the smoke. Diamond stood over her until she was rescued refusing to leave her side.

Steen and 16-year Sierra both had to stay in the hospital for weeks and have skin grafts. Diamond was sent to a pet hospital where she spent 6 weeks being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

People have been generous with donating money to the Steens and they hope that as soon as Steen is cleared to go back to work they can get their own place again. The 15-month old Diamond had been with the family for about a year when the fire broke out. She certainly has proved her loyalty.

Diamond is staying in one place while the Steens stay with relatives. The Steen’s are determined to find an apartment where they can have their dog. If it wasn’t for Diamond none of them would be alive.

On Monday night, Terisa Acevedo drove back with friends to shut off the truck alarm at her condemned house. Neighbors had called to complain. While standing on the porch she heard scratching at the door. She was amazed to find her dog Lola who had disappeared on February 23 when a fire gutted the Hyde Park Duplex in Boston.

On Feb 23, Terisa wasn’t at home when the fire started. The home was destroyed and Lola was missing. Police even took dogs through the house but they did not find Lola. Terisa put out fliers and contacted all animal shelters but to no avail.

Apparently, Lola had been living in the house for the entire month that she had been missing. She was very skinny after 27 days with limited food and water. Staff at Boston’s Angell Animal Center found that she was several pounds to light when she was brought in but that she had eaten recently.

Lola had no smoke damage to her lungs but is suffering from re-feeding syndrome. This means that it will take time to reintroduce her to food. She got her first meal yesterday morning to start her on the road to recovery. She is currently being fed 16 grams of wet food every 6 hours to reintroduce her body to nourishment.

If all goes well Lola can go home on Thursday. Terisa and Lola are very happy to be reunited and this is an amazing story of courage and never giving up for both of them.

Thiago DeCastro was just heading off to his classes at Kennesaw State University when he both smelled and saw the thick smoke coming from a nearby neighbor’s yard. DeCastro couldn’t know at that moment that he was soon to be a hero his neighbors would never forget.

Decastro found the whole backyard of the home on fire and quickly knocked on the door of the home to see if anyone was there. Dottie Tatum, his good neighbor, lived there, but she wasn’t home. However, her son-in-law and granddaughter were, but neither heard DeCastro’s frangtic knocking.

DeCastro tried to find a hose to put out the fire, but none was available. He also called 911 for help with the fire department. As he waited for the fire department he saw that the fire was roaring higher than the yard’s five foot privacy fence and was fearful if anyone was in the home.

The fire department arrived in about five minutes, but he said it seemed much longer. At that point, the occupants of the home realized what was going on and came out in disbelief. It was discovered that a lit cigarette had started the fire.

Decastro said he didn’t think he really did that much and just headed to class after the fire department got to the scene. But his neighbors think otherwise, and call the young man a hero. They later thanked him for saving their home and probably their lives.

Castro just shrugged and said, I wouldn’t want my house to burn down like that, I had to help, it’s what good neighbors do.