Volunteer firefighters in a small northern Ontario community rescued this puppy Friday morning

It was a difficult week for volunteer firefighters in the northeastern Ontario municipality of French River, but it ended on a high note when they rescued a puppy from a burning home Friday morning.

Volunteer firefighter Lt. Lukas Woolridge said the fire, which engulfed the second floor of a home in the town of Noëlville, was the third he had fought that week.

"They were very taxing, very tiring," he told CBC News.

"[The] fires took a lot of volunteers, but they put in a lot of effort and got it done."

Woolridge and the other volunteer firefighters responded to the fire in Noëlville at around 3 a.m. on Friday and were there until 10 a.m.

A lot of that time, he said, was spent attacking hotspots on the second floor after the fire had mostly been extinguished.

Near the end of his shift, Woolridge said he was scanning the outside of the building when he spotted something through the main door.

"Something just caught my eye and I found the puppy," he said.

"I found it buried in a basket of clothes it had hidden in. It was deep inside. I just saw it moving."

Woolridge said the puppy picked a good spot to hide on the main floor, because the fire was mainly contained to the building's second floor.

"He was unharmed completely," he said. "Just a little bit of water."

He brought the puppy to safety, and the fire service later contacted his owner, who was no longer at the scene by that point.

"It just made everyone smile a bit out of a dark time," Woolridge said.

"You know how people feel about pets these days. I'm also a pet owner and it's like saving a member of the family."