(8 Mar 2018) The Detroit Fire Department is the proud new owner of more than 800 pet oxygen masks.
The announcement was made Thursday by Patti Kukula (kuh-KOO'-luh), who heads up the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, which facilitates donations from the community on behalf of the Detroit Police and Fire departments.
Kukula and fire officials say the donated masks are crucial to saving dogs and cats from fires.
Local groups and companies mobilized to donate close to 300 pet oxygen mask kits _ containing the 800-plus masks _ after learning about a house fire in which firefighters saved 15 of 17 trapped dogs.
Following that rescue effort, the first responders noted that the fire department had a limited number of the specialty equipment needed to help save animals trapped in a fire and would welcome more.
"We had limited numbers of these, and this is where the outpouring came in and all the donations," Deputy Chief Eugene Biondo told reporters Thursday at a city fire station.
"It's now allowed us to have (a mask) on every single rig, which nobody in the country has it, because, as I say, it's a specialty piece of equipment."
Dr. Maddy Lutz, an emergency veterinarian with Advanced Animal Emergency, said: "The most important thing about these kind of emergencies is getting oxygen to the pet as quickly as possible."
"It does give them a much better chance of survival once we can get them into the clinic," Lutz said after placing one of the masks over the nose and mouth of Juliet, a 12-year-old pit bull mix who was on hand for a demonstration of how the equipment works.
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