A West Jordan family’s home was destroyed in a Saturday afternoon fire — but thanks to three nearby teens in a moment that’s gone viral, two dogs didn’t burn with it.
Carter Jacobson, Garbriel Hernandez and Camerin Inselsberger, each 17, were doing yard work at Inselsberger’s house when Hernandez noticed a tower of smoke emanating from the neighbor’s home up the street.
The three of them, along with Inselsberger’s dad, didn’t hesitate to hurry to the scene and investigate.
According to Jacobson, they arrived before first responders and heard from bystanders that everyone from one of the homes had gotten out safe.
As for the home next to it, the side of which was quickly being consumed by flames, Jacobson said no one knew who, if anyone, was still inside.
“We all kind of made the decision to just run in,” he said. “We knocked on the door. No one answered. I looked through the window and I see a dog. And so our first through was, ‘Hey, let’s get this door open.’”
Doorbell camera footage posted by Jacobson’s sister on TikTok shows what came next — the three boys, along with Inselsberger’s dad, attacked the door with their bodies, slamming into it with their shoulders, legs and feet.
Finally, the video — which has received more than 744,000 “likes” as of Friday morning — shows the door giving way, and the teenagers hurrying into the house.
Jacobson said he rushed to the laundry room, where he knew the dogs were. The smaller dog, he said, was cowering in the corner behind its larger companion.
“They were both just shaking,” he said. “That’s something I won’t forget from that experience, is just how scared the dogs were.”
Hernandez, meanwhile, ran to the side of the house where there were bedrooms. Thinking it was a bedroom, he said he went into a bathroom, only to be met with intense heat. A propane tank just outside was still spewing flames, he said, and the heat singed his hair.
(Katelynn Inselsberger) In order from left to right: Carter Jacobson, Gabriel Hernandez and Camerin Inselsberger, all 17 years old, pose with West Jordan Mayor Dirk Burton after the three teenagers ran into a burning home to save dogs inside.
Roughly 30 seconds after they left, Jacobson said the house was almost entirely “engulfed in flames.”
The owners arrived minutes later, he said.
“As they pulled up, she’s crying, she goes, ‘Where’s my dog?’” he said. “I’m like, ‘We already got them out.’”
The family’s neighbor has started a GoFundMe to help them.