Hero fire dog on mend after Skegness blaze drama

Dexter the East Midlands Fire Dog was rushed to Fenwold Vets in Spilsby after eating the bait at the scene of the blaze that ripped through Yorkshire Country Meats on Friday night.

The two-and-a-half-year-old Cocker Spaniel was taken ill while accompanying the fire officers investigating the cause of the blaze at the abattoir on Saturday.

Dog handler Dave Coss told The Standard: “We were searching a fire scene on Heath Road when he found and started eating the poison. Thankfully, I saw him do it. We knew we didn’t have long so we contacted the nearest vets and got him to Spilsby within the hour. They gave him an injection to make him sick to get out as much as we could.

“Had we not got to the vets so fast it could have been fatal.”

Dexter attends more than 200 incidents a year and has already been to Skegness five times since January.

Six crews were called to the abattoir at about 7.20pm on Friday.

It is understood there were no animals inside at the time of the blaze.

A joint fire and 
police investigation is under way to determine the 
cause.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident number 409 of February 25.