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SPCA: Nurse rescues dog from burning home
Animal advocates honor Rocky Point resident's bravery in saving neighbor's pet from blaze
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Kristan Probeck, of Rocky Point, has been given a new nickname by the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: "Hero nurse."
Probeck, a registered nurse at Stony Brook University Medical Center, was awarded a certificate of merit at the Suffolk SPCA's headquarters in Smithtown Friday for rescuing a dog from a burning house. While walking her 8-year-old daughter, Jackie Bauer, to the bus stop on a recent morning, Probeck said Jackie noted the sounds of a smoke alarm coming from a neighbor's home. Upon reaching the house on Sunburst Drive in Rocky Point, Probeck saw flames through the window and remembered that the owner had two dogs inside.
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| | | Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross awards a certificate of merit to registered nurse Kristan Probeck of Rocky Point Friday at SPCA headquarters in Smithtown as her daughter, Jackie Bauer, beams in pride for her mother. Photo by Jennifer Choi. (click for larger version) | |
Her first reaction, Probeck said, was shocked confusion: "What do I do?" But once she began thinking about the dogs, the nurse said she "kicked into action" and broke a window screen to enter the house while another neighbor called the police and fire departments. After Probeck rescued one dog, firefighters arrived within minutes and rescued the second dog, she said. The fire, Probeck later was told, started in the kitchen from an
ignited stove.
After receiving the certificate of merit Friday from SCPA Chief Roy Gross, Probeck said she has "mixed feelings" because, "I would hope that everybody would do this."
"There was not a thought of, 'Should I do this?'" Probeck said, adding that her family also has a "full house" of pets, including a Husky, a cat and a rabbit. As a dog owner herself, the nurse said she was "not afraid of getting bit" and "just grabbed the dog."
"It made me feel good that I was able to do something good for an animal," she said, noting that both of the rescued dogs are recovering well. While she works to save human lives as a registered nurse, Probeck said it was "thrilling" to help the dog because she has a "great love for animals."
Probeck's daughter Jackie applauded her mother's "good effort" and said, "I don't know what would've happened if we weren't at the bus stop." Jackie, a student in Rocky Point's Joseph A. Edgar School, said she hopes to become a veterinarian in the future.
Chief Gross, who has been involved with the SPCA for 25 years, said Probeck's "unbelievable" actions prove that "most people are good." While the 2,000 calls per year to the SPCA are mostly about abuse and neglect, the chief said hearing about rescue efforts such as those displayed by Probeck "brings a good feeling."
"That's a true hero," Gross said of the registered nurse, noting that she "disregarded her own safety" to rescue a helpless animal. "That's the good I like to hear. Her family should be proud."
Probeck's mother, Dorothy Probeck, said the owner of the rescued dogs is "ecstatic that somebody was able to help her dogs." Dorothy, a Miller Place resident, said her daughter takes after her late husband, who was a police officer.
"She's always there to help someone," Dorothy Probeck said. "That's my daughter."
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