DANIA BEACH — A Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy shot two dogs as they charged at the fire marshal during a massive blaze at a truck repair shop early Friday morning, officials say.
The dogs survived the shooting.
The fire broke out a little after 4 a.m. in the parking lot of T&M Truck and Trailer in the 2400 block of Southwest 32nd Street in Dania Beach, Broward Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane said in a media release.
Over 40 firefighters responded to find multiple tractor trailers engulfed in flames between two businesses, Kane said. Five commercial vehicles were fully engulfed.
As firefighters were responding to the scene, a person in a vehicle with two pitbulls inside pulled over to a nearby building, according to Claudinne Caro, a spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The dogs ran out of the car and charged at the fire marshal and a BSO deputy, who was assisting at the scene.
The deputy shot both dogs “in self-defense,” Caro said in an email.
Deputies transported the dogs to Broward County Animal Care for treatment, and both dogs are alive. Caro did not say who was driving the vehicle or why they pulled over at the fire scene.
It took the firefighters over an hour to extinguish the fire, which was hot, intense, and “extraordinarily difficult” to contain, Kane said, because of the heavy load of diesel fuel in the trucks and its confinement between the two buildings. The business was in constant threat of catching fire, but firefighters were able to extinguish the fire before that happened.
One of the firefighters was hospitalized with a minor back injury, Kane said. No one else was injured.
The fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
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