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.