S.F. man who saved woman in bay in 2001 suffers severe burns rescuing dog from fire

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2-time hero clings to life/S.F. man who saved woman in bay in 2001 suffers severe burns rescuing dog from fire

 

Friday, February 9, 2007 (SF Chronicle)

Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer

 

When Michael Keenan ran into a burning building to save a dog -- a dog

that didn't even belong to him in a home where he didn't live -- his

friends and family weren't surprised.

 

The San Francisco man had already proven himself a hero six years earlier

when he jumped into San Francisco Bay to save two strangers who had driven

their car into the water. He knocked out the back window of their fully

submerged car and pulled a woman to safety, but her husband died before he

could be rescued.

 

Now Keenan, 43, is fighting for his life at San Francisco General

Hospital. He'd safely escaped the fire at a friend's house Tuesday morning

but then did something firefighters warn people never to do: He ran back

inside the house. He managed to rescue his friend's dog but suffered burns

to 80 percent of his body.

 

On Thursday, Keenan went in for the first of what are likely to be many

surgeries, and doctors have told his friends and family that his chances

of survival are 50-50.

 

" I know a lot of people may judge him for going back in for a dog, but

it's just part of his nature. It's just courage, " said Frank Hsieh, a San

Francisco firefighter who has known Keenan for about 20 years. " He just

acts. He's selfless. The guy's a total hero. "

 

The dog, a 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Bobby, also is fighting

to live. After Keenan pulled him from the fire, Bobby -- with serious

burns to his legs and the bottom of his feet -- ran away, making it

several blocks to the home of his owner's friend, from where he was taken

to a local pet hospital.

 

Keenan, an artist, had been house-sitting for Janet Gerl, a close friend,

at her home on Bonita Street in Russian Hill when the fire started. He

recently had returned to San Francisco after living in Los Angeles for a

couple of years and was waiting for renovations to be complete at an

apartment he would be renting.

 

The fire started at about 2:30 a.m. near the front of the house. Keenan

ran safely out of the house, then ducked back into the flames when he

realized the dog was still inside, according to the Fire Department. When

Keenan came back out of the house, he was engulfed in flames. He was still

conscious when he arrived at the hospital and talked to medical personnel

about the dog, authorities said. The cause of the fire is still under

investigation.

 

Since the fire, Keenan has been in an induced coma, friends and family

said. The worst burns are to his hands and feet, and his body has been

swollen by intravenous fluids. He underwent surgery Thursday to remove

dead skin from his hands and arms and to replace it with cadaver skin.

 

The dog isn't in much better shape. Bobby is in intensive care at Pets

Unlimited, and swelling has left him blind, although it's too soon to say

whether the eye damage is permanent, said veterinarian Dr. Megan Moses.

 

Friends said a lot of people might question whether the risk Keenan took

to save a dog was worth it. But Keenan, they said, probably never gave it

a second thought.

 

" I'm sure he was concerned for the safety of the animal and what the owner

might go through if the dog wasn't saved, " said friend David Stefani of

San Francisco. " He was not thinking about himself first, that's for sure. "

 

And he wasn't thinking of himself in December 2001 when he dove into San

Francisco Bay to save a stranger, friends said.

 

It was Christmas Day, and Keenan and a friend had gone to the St. Francis

Yacht Club for drinks to celebrate the holiday. Outside the club, Heather

Laarif was teaching her husband, Abdel, how to drive, San Francisco police

said at the time. The couple had pulled their Jeep Cherokee into a parking

spot at the edge of the bay, and suddenly the car jerked forward --

investigators assume Abdel Laarif accidentally hit the accelerator. The

car tumbled into the water.

 

Keenan saw the accident as it happened, said Hsieh, who was part of the

firefighter battalion that responded to the incident. Keenan grabbed a

wrench from someone at the club and jumped into the 50-degree water, Hsieh

said. He used the wrench to smash the back windshield of the Jeep and

pulled out Heather Laarif. The water was so treacherous that it was hours

before authorities were able to retrieve the Jeep.

 

" He must think he's Spider-Man or something. He's clearly got the hero

instinct in him, " said Keenan's brother, Jim Keenan. " He picked the wrong

job. He's an artist, and he should be a cop or a fireman or something. "

 

Longtime friend Stacie Krajchir of Los Angeles agreed: " I want to tell him

when he wakes up, 'If you wanted to be search-and-rescue, why didn't you

just join the damned fire department?' "

 

Keenan spent most of his childhood in Maine but moved to California in his

early 20s to start a clothing design company with friends from his home

state. He has lived in California ever since, mostly in San Francisco.

 

He has worked on and off as a clothing designer and supported himself with

jobs as an artist and carpenter. Most recently, he had been renovating a

business in Marin County, friends said.

 

Keenan is an outgoing charmer, they said, and he's had a near-constant

stream of visitors since arriving at the hospital. The accident, his

friends said, has turned into a bittersweet sort of reunion for friends,

who have flown in from as far away as Maine to be with him. Friends are

setting up a Web site to keep people updated on his condition. " He's like

a brother to me -- he always treated me like a sister, " Krajchir said.

" It's hard, seeing him like this. Michael is always so alive and

vivacious. "

 

Friends have established a trust fund to pay for Michael Keenan's medical

expenses. For information, go to michaeljameskeenan.blogspot.com.

 

E-mail Erin Allday at eallday.

 

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