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A chocolate Labrador named “Buddy” was being called a hero Friday for saving his owner’s life when a fire broke out in the man’s South Sacramento home.

The unidentified man told fire crews he was sleeping when Buddy started to nudge him and in doing so alerted him to the fire, according to a Facebook post by the Sacramento Fire Department.

Buddy’s action could have been the difference between life or death for the man, given that there were no smoke alarms in the home, fire officials said.

The man was treated at the scene.

He later went to a hospital to get checked out for possible smoke inhalation, the post indicated.

Fire officials said First Alert had donated 100 smoke alarms to the department, which was in the process of distributing them to fire companies throughout the city.