Man recovering after saving girlfriend, losing service dog in Twin Cities house fire

A Twin Cities man is reflecting on a house fire that put him in the hospital, and took the life of his beloved service dog. 

It happened on March 25, when a propane tank caught fire at a residence in Little Canada, Minnesota. Leo Martinez was grilling on his deck and went inside his house to grab some vegetables. Minutes later, his dog Duke alerted him that something was wrong. That's when Martinez saw flames. 

"The fire moving quickly from the deck to the roof, and I realized I needed to get my girlfriend out of the house," said Martinez, in Spanish through an English interpreter. 

Once she was out safely, Martinez tried to run back inside to get Duke, but by then the fire had taken over. 

He believes his dog got scared and tried to hide in a room as the fire spread, but unfortunately, he didn't make it out.

Duke was also Martinez's service dog. Before he came to Minnesota, Martinez was in the military in Mexico and also worked as a police officer in Mexico City.  

But death threats from a drug cartel created emotional distress and caused Martinez to seek political asylum in the United States in 2014. He adopted Duke as a puppy to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder. 

"He could always tell when I was having a bad day and he would move closer to me and provide emotional support," said Martinez. "He's my hero." 

As he recovers from severe burns to his head, arm and leg at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Martinez isn't exactly sure what the future holds. He's relieved his girlfriend made it out safely, but he won't have a house to return to, and he doesn't have homeowner's insurance.

Still, he's holding out hope that better days are ahead. 

"Even when you go through the worst thing in your life like a fire and you get hurt and burned, you always have the opportunity to start over again," said Martinez. "And when life gives you that opportunity, you have to take it."

Martinez has been working as a carpenter ever since arriving in the U.S. 12 some  12 years ago. Friends in his carpenter's union have set up a GoFundMe page — "Rebuilding for Leopoldo after the Fire" — to help him pay for losses from the blaze.