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Life-saving tool

Lt. Francis Santaniello, left, Private Ben Cote, right, and Captain Dick Brady, front, pose with Brady's dog, Belle, to show how the new masks work. Reminder photo by Sarah M. Corigliano
Fire Department adds new tool to life-saving kit



By Sarah M. Corigliano

Assistant Managing Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW Last week the Fire Department announced that the East Longmeadow Firefighters Association purchased and donated a new tool for their fire fighting kit: oxygen masks for pets suffering from smoke inhalation.

Captain Dick Brady announced the purchase and said fire fighters often rescue pets from burning houses and, if the animals are still breathing, they try to give them oxygen. However, with oxygen masks designed for human faces, the proper amount of oxygen might not be delivered to the animal.

But Brady said he recently learned of a non-profit company that designs, and sells only to fire departments and rescue groups, masks that will fit over the nose and mouth of large and small dogs and cats (or other similarly-sized pets) and deliver the proper amount of oxygen during that critical rescue time.

"It's like what a veterinarian has," he explained. And now the East Longmeadow Fire Department has a full set on each truck so that, if they have the opportunity to rescue residents' pets at the scene of a fire, this will increase the pets' chance of survivial.

For more information about the masks, go to www.helpanimalsinc.org.