March 15--Before dawn March 8, four puppies regained life.
Ocean Springs Battalion Chief Crispus Medley said a house fire began about 4 a.m. near where a litter of newborn puppies were sleeping in the garage. The family in the Park Town subdivision had left a space heater near the puppies to help keep them warm.
Medley said the family safely got out of the home.
Grandmother Betsy Nazario said early that morning, the family was awakened by a scratching at the garage door. It was the pups' mother, Winter, alerting the family of the fire.
Nazario said if not for Winter, they may not have gotten out.
But the litter of pit bull-Labrador puppies, so young their eyes still hadn't opened, were still in the garage.
Medley said he saw one puppy he immediately believed to be dead. He told firefighter Lt. Brad Chennault to grab a pet oxygen mask to try to revive the pup with 100 percent oxygen.
Chennault was successful. All four puppies received oxygen, and along with their mother are now happy and healthy.
"We try to save anything we can," Chennault said. "If somebody says they've got a pet inside, obviously we're going to try to get it out as quick as we can, if we can."
Medley said the fire was nearly out when they retrieved the puppies and it seemed to have burned upward through an attic vent, which he believed saved the puppies from exposure to too much heat and fire.
The Fire Department received the pet oxygen masks in 2008 through the Pet Oxygen Recovery Mask Program. The mask has a cone shape, designed to slip over the snouts of pets.
Linda and Glynn Sumrall began the program after noticing the need for the life-saving devices. The Sumralls own A Pet's Memory Pet Funeral Home and received many donations from pet owners and the community to buy the masks at $55 for a set of three. Nearly all 98 fire stations across the Coast now have a set of masks.
"It is such a wonderful feeling to know that we have supplied a piece of equipment that will not only help save a life but will help the firemen do their jobs more easily and efficiently," Linda Sumrall said.
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