To the rescue

Val Meek ran in without thinking.\nThe building at 514 W. Second St., containing an ear, nose and throat doctor's office and two upstairs apartments on the opposite corner from Bloomington Hospital, caught fire in the east upstairs aparment just after 5 p.m. Monday.\nMeek was on the opposite side of the street from the burning building and heard the yells.\n"There was some people outside screaming fire, fire, fire," said Meek, a driver for Bloomington Transit.\nHis bus route passed the building every day. He didn't know if anyone was inside, but he was sure there were animals inside.\n"That was my big concern. I just wanted to make sure everybody was out," he said.\nBlack smoke poured from the east side of the building as Meek forced his way in. \nHis daughter Christie, 12, chased after him, hoping to save her father as more smoke poured from the side of the building. But she never made it up the stairs. Witnesses pulled her out.\nWhen he and another Bloomington resident made their way to the upstairs apartments, he found the east apartment red hot. He opened the door to the west apartment, while the other man pushed through the door into the east apartment.\nMeek searched the apartment and found a dog lying on the ground upstairs. \nHe just kept repeating: "Save the dog. Save the dog."\nMeek made it to the front room dragging the dog by the collar, but his head began to spin from breathing air laden with smoke.\nThe collar slipped off the dog who ran to the back room.\nAbout 10 witnesses in the parking lot of the building watched as firefighters arrived on the scene.\nCaptain Rick Petermichel had seen the smoke from Fourth St. and Walnut St as his department made their way to the scene. For a building that small, the fire was big, he said.\nEngine One broke an upstairs window on the east side of the building, pouring water onto the flames. \nFire fighters pulled Meek out of the building and coaxed the dog out. Neither were harmed.\n"We've done a pretty thorough search of the building and we didn't find anyone," Petermichel said. "People were just concerned that there was someone in there." \nInvestigation began around 6 p.m. when the fire was completely out. Petermichel said no cause could yet be determined for the fire and expected investigations to last late into Monday evening.\nFor Meek, running into the building was the only option.\n"Whether it was a dog, a cat or a person," he said. "Got to do what you got to do. I didn't do anything anybody else wouldn't do"