I’ll preface this by saying we were involved in a house fire in November and that we don’t have pets at the moment but have in the past.

No. I wouldn’t go back in for pets. I’d leave the door open and call for the animal, but I wouldn’t go back in.

In November we were woken up just before midnight to the smoke detectors blaring. The mechanical room was on fire and the main level of the home was quickly filling up with smoke. It was terrifying. After a very quick assessment going upstairs (the smoke detectors ringing were upstairs - main level - and all the bedrooms were downstairs - walk-out basement level) and realizing there was a fire, I ran back downstairs to get the kids. The 2 older kids woke up on their own and were running upstairs to get out of the house as I was coming back down, but the 2 younger ones were deeply sleeping. I literally grabbed a kid in each arm and ran out. My husband stayed in the home to try to extinguish the flames and turn off the propane to the mechanical room, but the smoke became too thick, and after a panicky few minutes of him staying in the home with smoke billowing out he came out. All safe and no one was hurt but a few more minutes in that house and my husband may be dead - the smoke was that bad. No way would we have gone back in for pets. Is that an easy decision? Heck no. But I know that we would choose our human family to be safe first and foremost.

About 2 weeks later - about 30 miles away there was another house fire where the husband and wife both got out of the house. The wife went back in to get the dog. She was killed by smoke inhalation within moments of going back in. I believe the dog also died but I’m not sure. She was safe, but made the choice to try to get the dog and died doing it leaving behind her husband (and probably kids and grandkids).

To those of you that would...

Would you do it for any pet of yours? Just your dogs? What about your cat? Hamster? Goldfish? Can't imagine anyone going in for a goldfish.

I could see folks' drawing the line between people vs. animal. How's the rest of the pet hierarchy look?

Not an animal fan. Genuinely just curious.

I only have dogs, but I'm sure if I had a cat I would go back in for it too. I'm gonna say just about any pet.

This is all within reason of course. If the fire just started of course I'm going in, but if the building is on the verge of collapse, I would have too bet the baby is already dead and just deal with it.

I love my animals and would certainly put some risk into saving them, but I'm also not suicidal.

This. As an aside, I'd imagine it could be really tough to get a cat out. When she was scared my cat tended to hide where anything would have a tough time getting to her.