A homeless man risked his life to save dogs and cats trapped at an Atlanta animal shelter after it caught fire.
On December 18, Keith Walker, 53, rushed into the W-Underdogs shelter after a fire engulfed in the kitchen.
“I was nervous as hell, I’m not going to lie,” he said.
“I was really scared to go in there with all that smoke. But God put me there to save those animals,” Walker spoke to CNN. “If you love a dog, you can love anyone in the world. My dog is my best friend, and I wouldn’t be here without him, so I knew I had to save all those other dogs.”
According to W-Underdogs founder Gracie Hamlin, the shelter was not completely burnt, but the fire left it uninhabitable.
Fortunately, W-Underdogs was only a week away from moving into its new shelter in Atlanta, where the animals now reside.
“He is my guardian angel,” Hamlin said to CNN. “Even the firefighters didn’t want to handle the dogs. They called animal control, but Keith was already in the building pulling out the cats and dogs until they were all safe.”
Hamlin knew Walker, who has been homeless since he was 13 years old because she lets him keep his dog —a pitbull named Bravo— at the shelter every night.
Walker was on his way to pick up Bravo and take him for a walk when he saw the shelter in flames. He was able to rescue all the six dogs and 10 cats.
“I can’t thank him enough for saving my animals,” Hamlin said. “I’m still in disbelief because I’ve been around a fire and I know how fast they flare-up. He is my hero.”