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Curious Dog Gets Credit for Foiling Gas Explosion

Kobe kept digging in yard, alerting owner in Philadelphia
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2024 1:33 PM CST
Dog Credited With Prevented a Gas Leak Explosion
This is not Kobe's nose, but his might deserve to be a Getty stock image, too.   (Getty / Berentschotcooke)

For all we know, Kobe might have just been trying to get at some tasty spoiled eggs he thought were buried. But whatever his motivation, the 4-year-old husky is credited with preventing a gas leak explosion in Philadelphia, reports USA Today. As owner Chanell Bell explains in an Instagram video, she noticed that he wouldn't stop digging at a spot in the front yard. Because they'd had a gas leak a few weeks earlier, Bell says she investigated with a gas-detection device that, sure enough, detected a leak.

She called the city gas utility, and its workers were "able to locate and successfully make the location safe," the utility tells the Guardian. Bell says the workers told her something as simple as the flick of a light switch could have ignited the house had the leak not been found. Dogs do indeed have a knack for detecting gas leaks, per wagwalking.com, mainly because utilities use a chemical that gives off a rotten-egg odor to make leaks easier to sniff out. We may not have heard the last of Kobe: Bell already has written a children's book about his good deed. (More dogs stories.)

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