{gallery}04_28_09/clarkfire{/gallery} Cade Brangal (facing camera) and Sheena McCullough comfort each other after a fire in their rented home at 655 N. Clark St. destroyed their possessions and took the life of their dog on Sunday afternoon. Tribune photo by Ilene Olson When Cade Brangal and his girlfriend, Sheena McCullough, brought their dog home on Sunday afternoon, they had no way of knowing it was the last time they'd see her alive. The dog died of smoke inhalation when the house, located at 655 N. Clark St., caught fire less than an hour later.

Beauty, a 2-year-old Bruno pit bull, had a habit of getting into the trash when she was left alone. So, before they left, Brangal put the kitchen wastebasket on the counter to keep it out of her reach.

Powell Fire Chief Joey Darrah said he believes the dog knocked the wastebasket over, spilling trash onto the kitchen stove, where it was ignited by a pilot light.

“It's not 100 percent certainty, but that appears to be the case,” he said. Because the fire started in the stove, “I suspected the dog right away.”

Brangal said he and Sheena and their 3-year-old son, Isaiah, came home so he could get his wallet. When Sheena went inside to grab it, she ran back outside to tell him the house was on fire.

“I busted out two windows and crawled in to get my dog in the kitchen and pulled her out,” Brangal said.

But by the time he got Beauty out, she already was dead. He cried as he laid beside her body on the lawn of the house next door.

“My dog would follow me everywhere,” he said Monday. “I can't stop thinking about her.”

McCullough's mother, Debbie McCullough, came to comfort the couple as firefighters worked to put the fire out.

She said the family had taken Beauty with them when they visited her earlier that day.

“That dog was just over at my house, teasing my cat,” she said, adding, “Thank God it wasn't one of them. Thank God it wasn't worse.”

Sheena McCullough, who is expecting the couple's second son in August, said they had insurance on the furniture in the house, which was rented. She thought it might cover the rest of the family's belongings as well.

On Sunday, firefighters brought out a few items that had survived the fire. They included a stuffed animal, singed and soot-covered family photos, a blanket and a few clothes on hangers.

Darrah said the house probably is pretty close to a total loss due to heat damage.

Red Cross representatives were on the scene before firefighters had finished putting out the hot spots to help them find housing and meet their immediate needs.

Had the fire happened at night, things could have been very different. There were no smoke detectors in the house, Brangal said.

“Thank God we weren't in there,” he said.