Mooch... A Hero!

Dan Gerard Collection

On December 24, 1948, Engine 11 responded, with their part-Dalmatian mascot “Mooch,” to a smoky fire in a three-story frame tenement at 219 South 11th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues. Firefighters immediately went to work rescuing occupants, venting the building, and opening up walls searching for hidden fire.

For the first time in three years, Mooch jumped down from the engine seat, entered the fire building, and found a fox terrier named “Winkie” cowering under the bed of his owner, Charles Mackin, on the third floor. The whimpering dog had taken refuge due to the dense smoke and commotion.

All the coaxing of the firefighters could not budge the pooch, so they called on Mooch. In the finest traditions of the NFD, Mooch crawled under the bed, coaxed Winkie out of hiding, and led the little dog out of the fire building to the safety of its owner's arms.

On April 3, 1949, Mooch, accompanied by Captain James Gaynor, of Truck 11, and Firefighter Leroy Hopkins, of Engine 11, was awarded the Paddy Reilly Medal for Heroism at the Greenwich Humane League, at 57 8th Avenue, in New York City. The medal was presented by Becky Lou Rand, 12, the league’s mistress of ceremonies, and tied around the dog’s collar. The medal is awarded in memory of a dog that died in 1939 after rescuing 49 humans and nine animals from a fire.