Firefighters Get Set to Resuscitate Pets in California

They have their own clothing lines, special diets and massage therapists. They even have spas for stress-free getaways and classes for learning the two-step.

A whole industry has been built around these creatures some consider best friends, protectors or family members.

As further proof of society's increasing devotion to pets, Contra Costa County firefighters will now have a way to save them from the suffocating fumes of a fire.

"We understand, many of us are an animal lovers, we know they're a part of our family," said Alan Hartford, battalion chief in charge of the fire district's paramedic division.

Acknowledging the role pets play in people's lives, the fire district will soon rig trucks with resuscitation devices for animals. It will join a small group of fire departments nationwide who will carry the apparatus, which is essentially an oxygen mask made for any size snout.

Roughly 60 percent to 70 percent of households have at least one pet, so chances are good that firefighters responding to a blaze will find an animal in the house, he said. After the people have been safely rescued and no one else is in danger, crews will search for pets.

It used to be that if firefighters found an animal suffering from smoke inhalation, they would rig a human mask, which is a poor fit to the contours of a snout. These masks are veterinarian supplies made for cats and dogs, but rescuers could use the smallest sizes for birds, reptiles or other small mammals.

Contra Costa firefighter Tim Diaz, who has a 15-year-old springer spaniel and an 8-year-old border collie, recalled the time he tried to use an infant's oxygen mask to save a pet suffering from smoke inhalation. The animal later died.

"These look like they'll be much better," he said.

Capt. Steve Travis said animals, like young children, often panic in a fire and try to hide in compact spaces like a closet, sealing their fate. The new device will at least give animals who inhale toxic fumes a shot at survival.

Aside from the closer-fitting mask, the rest of the device works like its human counterpart. Forming a seal around the snout, the mask is connected to an air pump bag to force oxygen into the smaller lungs.

"I think it can be frustrating to firemen when they get into a situation with an animal and have the time to save them but don't have the tools to really help," said Erin Troy, a Walnut Creek veterinarian who appears in the department's training video.

"They're often very caring and very strong animal lovers ... if given the opportunity to help they're not going to walk away from it."

But Chief Hartford offered a word of warning.

"We don't want people to think we're in the animal care business," he said. "This is strictly for the use of animals pulled out of structure fire, based on manpower at scene.

"If an animal's sick, don't call 911 ... I feel bad saying that sometimes because often their only family is their pet, but we realize the hierarchy."

Members of the Pleasant Hill Lions Club raised the $3,700 in donations last spring for the masks.

Half of that money went toward buying eight resuscitation units, which will be distributed to each of the special large firetrucks, called quints, that respond to every fire.

Club president-elect Richard Henne got the idea after watching an episode of "The Sharon Osbourne Show" in October 2003. The program featured members of San Mateo Fire Department and the Peninsula Humane Society, which raised money to put the gear on firetrucks in San Mateo County.

"I have three dogs and a cat myself, and my feeling was, 'animals, dogs, cats and whatever else can be a person's only family, they can be some people's whole lives,'" Henne said. "You can't put a value on a life whether it's an animal or human life."

The Peninsula Humane Society referred Henne to Matrx, an emergency and veterinarian medical supply company in Buffalo, N.Y., which adapted the gear from existing vet equipment after receiving a flood of calls after the Osbourne show, said John Owczarczak, a vet product engineer at Matrx.

"People were calling asking for this, so we put it together as a kit. We'd been selling the parts, but not together. We didn't realize there was such a need," Owczarczak said.

Since then, nearly all the city fire departments in San Mateo County have gotten the equipment, and a number of departments in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida have also equipped their trucks with the devices.

Henne says the Lions Club hopes to use the rest of the money to outfit trucks in Berkeley and Richmond.

"If you can just save one animal," said Henne, "it will have all been worth it."

Distributed by the Associated Press