Chesterton Tribune

 

 

First responders save dogs lives in garage fire using CPR, mouth-to-mouth

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The lives of seven Labrador retrievers found unconscious in a Porter Township garage fire were saved on Tuesday by first-responders using CPR, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, andÑfinallyÑspecial pet oxygen masks, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police and the Indiana State Police are reporting.

According to the PCSP and ISP, at 4:09 p.m. ISP Trooper Justin Hansen responded to a report of a residential fire at 535S 500W and, on arriving at the scene, “observed thick black smoke coming from the garage windows.” Also responding were PCSP officers Mike Piazza and Tyler Williams, Hebron Police Chief Josh Noel and Officer Casey Robinson, and Hebron Fire Chief Chad Franzman, all of whom arrived at the scene before the fire engines did.

On entering the garage, the officers found seven dogs, two of them pregnant and all of them unconscious and unresponsive “as a result of smoke inhalation,” the ISP said.

“The first-responders then took immediate action and began CPR on the canines, providing oxygen in an attempt to revive them,” the ISP said. “Some of the officers and neighbors were able to open the dogs’ airways and blow air into their lungs. When EMS arrived on the scene, first-responders were then able to use ‘pet masks’ in order to better provide oxygen to the canines.”

The officers subsequently transported the labs to local animal hospitals, and the one in direst condition by Trooper Hansen to a vet’s clinic in Valparaiso, the ISP said. “As (Hansen) drove his police car, Kouts Firefighter Mike Luzack administered CPR in the back seat to the injured canine.”

“As of the writing of this news release, all of the dogs have survived the incident as a result of everyone’s brave actions,” the ISP said. “The dogs are all Labradors and the owner is a local breeder.”

Boone Grove Fire Chief Mike Meinert told the ISP that this is only the third time in 10 years that the pet masks have been used, after being donated “by a caring citizen.”

The fire does not appear to be suspicious in nature but may have been caused by a heat lamp in the garage, the ISP said. The homeowners were out at the time of the fire.

 

Posted 5/9/2018

 
 
 
 

 

 

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