While it does seem suspicious, after watching the video for a couple times, I think it's legit for the following reasons.
1. The lady's injuries didn't look to be too severe - Now, if she were bleeding all over the place (Monty Python's the Black Knight style), that
would be pretty suspicious. Also, if she's in some sense of shock, that would also be a possibility to explain why she didn't get medical
attention.
2. The stuff the dog was buried under didn't appear to be "stainless steel" - what I saw was a piece of very thin material (it could have been
steel, but I'm thinking more along the lines of aluminum). There was some rust on the second large piece of debris (maybe iron/steel), but I can
still believe that someone like the reporter could move the stuff out of the way. The air ducts in my old basement were made of steel, but I was still
able to move the pieces at age 10 (almost hurt myself, but that's beside the point).
3. A possible reason that she called it her "little dog" is because when you're suddenly put into the spot light, and you don't know the person,
pets can sometimes be referred to as "objects" rather than "named things". It's a way of adapting speech so that the other person knows what you
are talking about.
For example, had the lady said "I was sitting on the still with Randall on my lap" - that would kind of imply that the people listening knew who (or
what) Randall is (at least to her) - I do this when I talk to strangers a lot. I own a cat, but unless I know the person, subconsciously I refer to my
cat as "my cat" (or, if I feel like being humorous, I also fall into the habit of calling her "The demon furball from ...."). Not trying to make
excuses for the lady, but it's possible that the situation had her revert to saying "my little dog", instead of "Randall" because she felt that
saying that would make more sense.
4. That animal looked pretty shocked to me - I'd also hazard a bet that it's injured in some form. Seeing as I didn't hear any barking, an injury
could also explain its apparent "lack of enthusiasm" when greeting the owner (they say the same about kids and injuries; the injuries you need to
worry about are they ones they aren't screaming their heads off at).
Now, that said - we don't know how much time has elapsed
before this clip was aired - so it's entirely possible that the lady was
elsewhere (possibly near the news truck) - and while she was away, the dog was unconscious. Afterwhich, as she was leading the reporter through her
ordeal, it's possible at some point the dog awoke, and did something to make it known (hence appearing it was "faked").
5. As for the petting of said dog, or why the dog didn't "jump up" - it's all a matter of opinion. If the lady had something like arthritis, a
gentle pet is going to be better than raking at the fur (same for the dog, if it's old, it's going to act like Herbert's dog from
Family
Guy). My cat bites me when I've been away too long - so I think it's safe to say each owner & pet have a different way of greeting each other.
And of course, there's the completely realistic chance that the reporter was lucky enough to be in the right place & right time.
Just because it's a disaster doesn't mean every story coming from the site needs to be a warzone.
-fossilera