On 4 February, Lincolnshire firefighters were called out to a house fire on Arthur Street in Lincoln. Although the occupiers were not in the building, their dog, Lottie was still inside.
Gaining access through a rear kitchen door and wearing breathing apparatus, Katie and Richard from Lincoln South fire station entered the smoke-logged house and rescued the small dog.
While other firefighters worked to extinguish the fire, they administered oxygen to Lottie who was normally fluffy white but was totally black from the smoke, wasn’t breathing. Using the special pet CPR masks that are now on every fire appliance that were kindly donated by the RSPCA, after 20 minutes, Lottie started showing signs of life and her eyes opened.
The emergency vet arrived and Lottie was placed in an oxygen tent overnight. After multiple observations and tests, the vet was delighted to tell the owners that Lottie will make a full recovery.
Crew Manager at Lincoln South fire station, Kenny McLaughlin, was the incident commander. He said:
“I’m very proud of the swift action taken by our firefighters at this incident. Although we are used to rescuing people and animals from properties, the effects of smoke on small animals is often too much for them. In fact the vet commented that in 15 years of witnessing pets pulled out of house fires, he had never seen one recover.
“We’re so pleased that Lottie has been one of the lucky ones and that she is on the mend, but also that this incident was prevented from being much worse.
“The fire itself was caused by a candle left unattended – something that is so easy to do, but can have catastrophic consequences.
“Again, our crews arrived and took action to extinguish the fire quickly so that the majority of the fire damage was contained to the dining room. But the whole house has suffered smoke damage, and this ia a timely reminder to always make sure you blow out candles when you leave a room, or use LED candles instead.”
Lottie before the fire
Lottie before the fire