‘Hero’ dog alerts owner to massive apartment complex fire in Baldwinsville

Rocco
Angela Murray credits her Pitbull-mix Rocco with barking and alerting her to a fire at an apartment complex in Baldwinsville on Friday, Jan. 24, 2024.Rylee Kirk

Baldwinsville, N.Y. — Angela Murray was already in bed Friday night when her dog, Rocco, started barking.

“Barking worse than usual,” Murray said. “Then I could faintly hear the alarm going off.

She was tempted to go back to bed but something made her get up, she said.

“I went to the living room where he kept barking and I’m hearing ‘pop pop pop’ in the ceiling,” she said. “I’m like ‘oh no, this is real.’”

She ran into her bedroom, threw on sweatpants and shoes and leashed up Rocco, a black and white Pitbull mix.

“I’m on the top floor but I could see stuff flying, debris,” she said.

Murray and Rocco went out the backdoor and down the stairs.

When she got out of the building the neighbors across the street were yelling for her to come over. She hurried across the street and turned around to see the staircase they had just taken, engulfed in flames, she said.

“If I had stopped to get for my glasses or look for my wallet... nope, I wouldn’t have made it out,” she said.

The fire, reported at about 9:45 p.m. Friday, ripped through two buildings in the New Legacy Apartments complex, 1 Legacy Drive. The roofs collapsed at one point.

Firefighters and police had to rescue some people from the apartments, firefighters said.

An 80-year-old man was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation, said North West Fire Department District Chief Tony McIntyre.

It took firefighters from multiple departments battling freezing conditions more than nine hours to put out the blaze.

In all, 24 apartment units were damaged or destroyed.

Murray, who is originally from Brooklyn and is a retired law enforcement officer, said she called her son. As he drove in he could see the smoke all the way from Village Green.

She walked down to the Microtel to meet up with her son along with the man who lived across the street, she said.

“My son met me and he hugged the gentleman and said ‘thank you,” Murray said.

Murray said that the community has been posting on Facebook trying to figure out how to help the displaced tenants.

“The Baldwinsville community has reached out,” she said. “They’ve been stepping up.”

Several neighbors are thankful to Rocco, Murray said.

“A couple of tenants are calling him the ‘hero dog,’” she said. “They said they never hear him bark but he was barking out of control, that something was wrong,”

The American Red Cross has set up a shelter for displaced residents at the Onondaga County Community College arena. Murray was there on Saturday morning.

Rocco was hanging out, tail wagging, in the parking lot in her son’s car.

As he sat in the back seat, covered with a Red Cross blanket, another resident came up to him.

“That’s our hero dog!” the resident exclaimed. “He deserves an award or something!”

Baldwinsville New Legacy Apartments fire
24 apartment units are damaged after a fire at the New Legacy Apartments on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.Rylee Kirk

Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on Twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.

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