A family of eight near Iqaluit may not have escaped a devastating house fire alive if not for the constant barking of Butch, their pregnant dog.

The blaze burned down Martha and Ipeelee Inookee’s public housing unit in nearby Apex early Thursday morning. Firefighters put out the fire by mid-morning, and investigators are now looking into what may have caused it.

While the fire destroyed everything the couple and their six children owned, Martha Inookee said everyone escaped unharmed thanks to Butch, who alerted her to the blaze.

She said Butch — who rarely enters the house — would not stop howling and scratching at the door, insisting that she get inside.

“I woke up when my dog was really banging on my door,” Martha Inookee told CBC News on Thursday, as the children were playing with Butch outside. “She was really banging; I thought it was a human.”

After opening the door to let Butch in, “I tried to go back to sleep to the couch,” Inookee recalled.

“I laid down and she bit my hand, trying to force me to get up.”

The dog then went to the window and started to howl. Inookee said that was when she got up, looked outside and saw the blaze.

She woke up the rest of her family, including children as young as 10, and led them safely outside.

It’s happened so fast,” Ipeelee Inookee said.

Iqaluit deputy fire chief Chris Wilson told CBC News that by the time crews arrived at the house, a quarter of the unit was in flames.

“At that point in time, it was a structure fire and not stable enough to send firefighters into the building,” he said. “So … we took up a defensive posture and then we spent the better part of the morning putting it out.”

Martha and Ipeelee Inookee said they are thankful for the support they’re receiving from friends, family members and other residents.

A group of volunteers from Iqaluit’s Anglican church women’s auxiliary has been delivering food to the family, as well as taking in clothes and other donations at the local Arctic College campus.

“I’m glad our kids are OK,” Martha Inookee said. “Thanks to our Butch dog, she saved us.”