It was a one-year-old Chihuahua named Noel who awakened her family to the fire that burned their home last Sunday, May 4, in the 14600 block of North Bend’s Riverbend neighborhood.

Everyone was sleeping, but Noel let out enough barks to wake up homeowner Chuck Schneider, who lived at the residence with wife Nancy and grandson Jacob, 17.

“She’s a yipper,” Schneider said. “She was barking and barking.”

Irritated at first, Schneider got up to hear a fire in what sounded like the fireplace.

“I thought it was just a chimney fire,” he said. Schneider and his grandson climbed to the roof of the house to put it out, but quickly realized the blaze was beyond their control. “It got so hot up there, it started melting the hose.”

Schneider called for help, and firefighters arrived within minutes. Ultimately, crews from North Bend, Fall City, Issaquah and Snoqualmie arrived at the scene.

The fire gutted the home, but it was insured and Schneider plans to rebuild.

“It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

Meanwhile, he is renting a house a few blocks from his home until the fall.

Schneider said he didn’t realize how many friends he had until the fire. Neighbors have offered plenty of food and hot beverages.

As for Noel, she will get one reward for her role in saving the family: avoiding a planned operation to silence her yap.

“I’m not going to remove her barker like I was going to do,” Schneider said. “She can bark. I don’t care.”