Dog Miraculously Saved from Fatal Fire in E. Village Fights for Survival; Drive Underway to Help
Bella was a constant companion to the 75-year-old man who perished in an East Village fire on Feb. 2. A neighbor took the frightened pooch from firefighters and rushed her to an emergency animal hospital. Now the neighbor’s sister is raising money to help in Bella’s recovery.
| 04 Feb 2025 | 02:45
Firefighters shortly after rescuing Bella from an apartment building fire that killed her owner in the East Village on the morning of Feb. 2, (
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The miracle dog Bella was rushed straight to Emergency Veternary Hospital in Chelsea after he was rescure from the Feb. 2 in an East Village apartment building that killed her 75-year-old owner. A neighbor who brought her to the hosptial is footing the bill for her recovery. A GoFundMe has been started to help defray the costs. (
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Bella had to stay overnight at the Emergency Vetenary Hospital in Chelsea following the tragic fire in the East Village that killed her 75 year old owner. (
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When firefighters pulled a dog named Bella from an East Village fire that killed her owner she was handed to a neighbor.
That neighbor, Dean Mann, rushed Bella to Emergency Vetenary Hosptial and says she is figthing to survive. “She’s basically on life support now,” he told Straus News. “We’re doing everything we can to save her.”
He said he was friends with the owner who perished, a man named Robert. “People definitely knew him in the neighborhood,” said Mann, “and they really knew his dog.”
He said the two were neighborhood fixtures. “She’d go with him everywhere. She was never on a leash. You wouldn’t see him without his dog.”
He lived directly across the street and has a dog named Tippy which like Bella is a miniature pinscher and that was how they bonded.
Mann’s sister Kris Letendre has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to pay for Bella’s medical care, who miraculously survived despite being in the same bedroom where her owner named Robert perished in an early morning blaze shortly after 10 a.m. on Feb. 2. at 65 Second Ave near the corner of E. 4th St.
“When Dean saw Bella being taken from the building by the firefighters, he immediately stepped up and took in Bella rather than having her sent to a shelter. Unable to walk, eat, or drink (due to the shock), he took her straight to the Emergency Veterinary Hospital,” wrote Letendre on the GoFundMe page which by Feb. 4 had raised just under $10,000 from nearly 200 people toward a goal of $12,000.
“While the long-term plan for Bella is still being figured out, and no next of kin found yet for the victim, Dean, without hesitation, signed off on anything Bella needed at the hospital, and has taken on the expense personally,” she wrote.
Mann said doctors said Bella suffered carbon monoxide poisoning and had to be placed in an oxygen chamber with tubes down her throat.
”It’s tough because she’s a very affectionate dog and needs human contact,” he said. “The miraculous thing is she didn’t suffer any external burns.”
But he said Bella was still having trouble walking two days after the fire and he just learned she might have some vision problems. “If she went to a shelter, she probably would have been euthanized,” said Mann. “But she has potential for survival and we’re doing everything we can to make it happen.”
“There was some good news,” Mann noted after a Monday visit. “She walked for about a quarter of a block yesterday and she wagged her tail.”
And his sister Letendre noted that if a monetary donation is not possible, she said to remember that animal shelters can always use donations of blankets and pet toys.
Police have not yet released the name of the victim as they search for a next of kin. A neighbor who lived in the building said the victim whose first name was “Robert” was an Air Force veteran who served in the Vietnam War.