Posts tagged "firefighters"

We caught Grumpy Old Cat watching this rescue video and muttering to himself, so we asked what he was thinking.

"These kittens today are so dumb! I never got stuck in a pipe when I was his age. No, sir! What does he think he is, a ferret?"

Grumpy Old Cat, that's not really fair. Your kind is known for getting caught in sticky situations. Haven't you ever heard the phrase "curiosity killed the cat"?

"Aw, baloney! That curiosity stuff is just a buncha politically-correct garbage that the bleeding hearts came up with so stupid cats wouldn't get their feelings hurt. A cat can use his brain to avoid getting stuck in pipes! That's what I do."

Well Grumpy Old Cat, what about the firefighters? Do you at least appreciate what they did? I mean, they did a really good job of saving that cat. They saved its life!

"Phooey! Are they firefighters or stupid-cat savers? Somewhere there's a fire that needs puttin' out, and these guys are over here fooling around with pipes and kittens. Why don't they do their job?"

Now you're just being rude, Grumpy Old Cat. You know perfectly well that firefighters don't only fight fires. They do all kinds of rescue work and life saving. You should have more respect.

"What a bunch of baloney."

Oh, Grumpy Old Cat. You're so grumpy!

Spikey, the dog who captured national headlines when he was airlifted from a Los Angeles river in a daring helicopter rescue is finally home. The 4-year-old German-shepherd mix was in quarantine for several days before being released and reunited with his owners, the Los Angeles Times reported.

On Friday, Jan. 22, viewers were glued to their television screens when news stations broadcast live coverage of a dog being rescued by the Los Angeles Fire Department from a surging river. The video from Fox 11 News shows firefighter Joe St. Georges, 50, dropping from a helicopter into the river, grabbing the struggling dog and airlifting him to safety -- but not before dangling high above the river for several long, nail-biting moments.

"We got reports of a dog in the Los Angeles River, which is really a concrete-walled flood control channel," Los Angeles Fire Captain Steve Ruda tells Paw Nation. The dog couldn't climb out of the river, which was extra-high due to heavy rains that had been flooding Los Angeles all week.

"The incident commander made a decision to rescue the dog," explains Capt. Ruda. "It was wearing a collar and appeared to belong to somebody. If we did nothing, we were concerned that humans trying to rescue the dog would be harmed." A helicopter swift water rescue team swooped in under high tension wires and lowered firefighter St. Georges into the river. "Joe [St. Georges] was able to capture the dog, put a capture strap around it, and get the dog to safety," Capt. Ruda says.

House fires are dangerous enough for people, but they too frequently prove fatal for our four-legged friends. Over 40,000 pets die of smoke asphyxiation each year.

Good news, then, that neighborhood fire departments, like Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue in Augusta, Ga., are acquiring smoke inhalation masks for pet use in emergency rescues.

"The majority of dogs and other animals that die in house fires are due to smoke inhalation and this will be able to take care of that problem -- might be able to save a lot more animals by having these devices available to us," Captain Robert Rosier with Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue told NBC Augusta.

The smoke mask that the Martinez-Columbia fire rescuers received was provided by an anonymous donor through Bark 10-4, an online store dedicated to helping fire departments nationwide obtain pet oxygen masks.

If you're interested in donating pet rescue masks to your local fire department, visit Bark10-4.com. There, you'll be able to buy a pet oxygen mask for $25, or a set of three for $65, shipped free of charge directly to your local fire rescue.

We've all heard of firefighters rescuing cats from trees, but from drainage grates? According to the New York Post, a lucky kitten was saved from a drain in a Long Island parking lot after a passerby heard her crying and called a Humane Society Volunteer, who then contacted the Oceanside Fire Department's ladder company.

Firefighter Matt Martin, who carried the cat out of the storm drain, told Paw Nation that he was "confident we would get the cat out." He described the rescue: "One member [of the company] went down one side and was trying to coax the cat out, but the cat was just sitting there in the middle of the pipe, and on the other side was another pipe where it could escape. So one of us was on either end." When the cat wouldn't budge, they "took the water extinguisher to try to, not to scare it but, you know, cats don't like water. This wouldn't hurt the cat at all -- there's not very much pressure -- so we just sprayed behind it to scare it to the other side. It started walking towards me and when it was about two feet away, I reached in and grabbed it."

The cat, nicknamed Storm, was severely hypothermic, and spent the night at Hilton Animal Hospital in a warming cage. The next day, she was taken to the Long Beach Humane Society, where she was adopted two hours later. And who should the proud new cat parent be but the mother-in-law of the good Samaritan who originally heard the frightened feline. Now that's what we call a happy ending!