A pit bull saved a woman from a fire in her Long Island, New York home on Friday, barking to alert her as the flames began to spread from the front to the back of the house.

Jackie Bonasera said she was drying her hair in an upstairs bathroom of the home on Gabriele Drive in East Norwich when she heard the dog barking. She ran downstairs and saw the flames on the side of her garage. 

She was able to escape the house.

"I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog – I'm like, 'He saved my life, I have to save his,'" Bonasera recounted.

"So I just put my robe over my face and I ran back in and I grabbed the dog and then I stood out here and I watched my house burn," she said.

Bonasera believes she would have been trapped upstairs if the dog, named Cain, hadn't alerted her to the fire.

Bonasera's daughter, Alexus Stallworth, said Cain is "the town hero."

"He's a pit bull, too," said Stallworth. "They have such bad reps, but he's such a good boy."

Stallworth was outside the house when the fire broke out and captured the blaze on her cell phone camera.

More than 70 firefighters were needed to stop the fire. Although the cause of the blaze has not been determined and the arson squad is investigating, police don't believe it's suspicious.

The homeowner is a contractor who is working on several homes that were damaged by Sandy, and he said he now hopes he can get his own home fixed before winter.

NBC New York's Greg Cergol and Jeff Richardson contributed to this story.

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Four people died in a fast-moving apartment fire in Emmaus, Pa., on Sunday.

The fire began around noon at a house on South 5th Street that was converted into apartment units. While firefighters eventually controlled the blaze, the coroner's office was called. Officials say they found four bodies in inside.

"I live right down at the corner and I did see them pulling people out," said local resident John Lake. "They did have body bags out."

The victims were not identified.

The American Red Cross Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter assisted two families who were displaced by the blaze.

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Investigators have not yet revealed the cause of the fire. Residents who live nearby say they heard explosions shortly after the blaze began on the ground floor of the building.

"I heard that it could've been gas-related," said Scott Schwartz. "The explosion came out the front window. Twenty minutes after that the roof was on fire."

Kelly Furlong told NBC10's Daralene Jones that the building was once a funeral home that her family ran until it was converted into an apartment complex.

"It was always home to me," said Furlong. "It's home and it's gone."

Michael Aldinger helped rescue some of the victims of the fire. He says that while he would've liked to do more, the smoke got to be too much.

"I tried helping them but there was too much black smoke," said Aldinger. "I heard a couple people screaming inside the house."

Police were investigating the cause of the fire Monday morning.

Eighteen cats and two birds were killed during a Connecticut house fire, but firefighters were able to save eight other pets. 

The blaze broke out just after 1:30 a.m. in the town of Berlin, and the female homeowner, Katherine O'Leary, was able to escape without being injured.

Matt Odishoo, the deputy fire marshal of Berlin, said the fire department brought most of the surviving animals out and revived them, before turning them over to animal control.

The surviving animals include seven cats and one sheep dog named Quigley. They are in the custody of Berlin Animal Control.

"They look healthy. They're traumatized, obviously, but they look healthy. They're good weights," Jan Lund, the animal control officer for Berlin, said.

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One cat is missing.

O'Leary is expected to check on her animals on Thursday.

Animal control plans to go over the pet records and make sure the pets are neutered in good health before returning them to O'Leary.

No local ordinance in Berlin limits the number of pets a resident can have, Lund said, and neighbors have not issued any complaints with animal control.

Officials believe that the fire appears to have started in mudroom. It caused extensive fire and water damage, fire officials said.

The cause is under investigation.

A mother and her four children died in an early-morning house fire in Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

The children – three girls and a boy – were between the ages of 2 and 8, said Major Tammy McKinney, spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Fire Department. A man, the mother’s boyfriend, is in critical condition at an area hospital.

The fire was accidental, McKinney said, caused by a space heater being too close to combustibles.

There were no functioning smoke detectors in the house, she said.

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