For once, Victor Starrett is happy that his two dogs were barking loudly in the morning.

The Niles man said the Chihuahuas alerted him and his family to a fire in the garage, giving them extra time to escape before it spread.

“These doggies were trying to tell me something was happening,” said Starrett, who lives at 1369 Huntly Rd. in Howard Township. “I tried to tell them that there isn’t anybody out there. Finally I got up and looked out the window and smoke was just rolling.”

Starrett quickly woke up his son, daughter and four-month old granddaughter. They got out of the house and huddled up, with the dogs, in a neighbor’s vehicle across the street.

“I just wanted to make sure everyone was out of there,” Starrett said. “The house can burn down, but you can’t put a life back together.”

The fire started around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Chief Ed Leneway, of Howard Township Fire Department, said his department was headed to another fire in Pokagon Township when they got word of the Huntly Road fire.

“We had to revert our guys to come here,” he said.

It took firefighters about 10 minutes to get the fire under control.

Leneway said it likely started on the back wall of an attached garage.

“We are digging into it to find out exactly what started it,” he said.

No one was injured in the fire.

There was extensive damage to the garage and a portion of the attic.