ARIZONA – A cat survived but more than likely used up one of its nine lives Saturday night when a fire broke out at a Mesa apartment Saturday night.
A back-up public information officer from the Mesa Fire and Medical Department waited until the smoke cleared and entered a bedroom.
“I saw a cat on the bed with foam coming from its mouth and in obvious respiratory distress,” Gio Mustaca stated.
“I grabbed the cat and took it outside where neighbors had a small kennel for it,” Mustaca added.
He handed the cat over to a Mesa fire engineer by the name of Jason Riordan, who is a paramedic, and told him to grab a Fido bag.
The bag is packed solid with the essential tools to get a pet through a crisis — pet oxygen masks (since human ones don’t fit pets’ heads), burn sheets, bandages, protective restraints, thick protective gloves for the rescuer and rinsing saline, among other things.
“After a few minutes the cat seemed to be doing better,” Mustaca explained.
Fire/medics called at small fire that created lots of smoke. A @fetchfoundation #FidoBag was used to save this cat. pic.twitter.com/EsBtJPZ2PB
— Mesa (Arizona) Fire & Medical Dept (@MesaFireDept) August 28, 2016
The cat’s owner did arrive on scene a short time later.
Last anyone knew, the cat was doing fine.
Mustaca went on to say that when firefighters first arrived, the majority of the fire was out. Debris was still smoldering and produced a large amount of smoke.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
According to The Fetch Foundation, more than 40,000 family pets die of smoke inhalation each and every year.
Fido Bags just might help firefighters reduce that staggering number.
