Firefighters are our everyday heroes who are always there for the citizens to save and protect them from danger. Whether the rescued person is a human being or an animal is irrelevant.
This was again impressively demonstrated by a fire brigade troop after they went the extra mile to rescue a husky trapped in a burning building.
“The battle starts on the way up the stairs,” firefighter Cody Brenon told WAVY. “You don’t usually have to go up that many stairs in a fire in a single family home.”
Brenon and his colleague Joseph DePalma entered the building and already saw the smoke that had spread everywhere.
Upon further search, they found an unconscious creature: a Siberian husky. Its owners were not in the flat.
Fortunately he was still alive, but he was unresponsive and not breathing. He desperately needed oxygen, so the firefighters lifted the dog and carried him out of the building.
Carrying a husky weighing a good 50 kilograms down all those stairs amid the fire and smoke was anything but easy: “I was hoping it was a Chihuahua,” DePalma said later.
The husky, named Igor, was brought to safety and animal welfare officers Frye and MacQueen from Virginia Beach Animal Control took care of him. The first thing they did was put an oxygen mask on him. Igor had inhaled a lot of smoke, but fortunately he suffered no burns or other injuries.
After the husky was given oxygen, he regained consciousness and “responded and reacted” to influences. His family was contacted and he was taken to Bay Beach Animal Hospital for further treatment.
And things have been looking good for Igor ever since: “What a successful and happy ending,” Virginia Beach Animal Control wrote on Facebook. “Igor is expected to make a full recovery.”
In addition to the rescue of Igor, the Virginia Beach Fire Department stated that other people were rescued from the building and no one was injured.
Brenon and DePalma were all the more pleased with their efforts because of that.
“It feels good to know he made it,” Brenon said. “That’s why I became a firefighter.”
We are also happy that Igor and other residents of the building were saved.
Thank you for your efforts, firefighters.