Dearborn Pet Owners Can Breathe Easier

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The chances of saving a pet’s life in a fire just increased in Dearborn Heights.

The city’s fire department received a donation of five pet oxygen masks that allow firefighters and EMS personnel to immediately give oxygen to pets suffering from smoke inhalation when they are rescued from fires.

The oxygen masks were provided under “Project Breathe,” a program of the Invisible Fence company, which manufactures pet containment products. Goals of the project are to equip every fire department in America and Canada with pet oxygen masks.

Ed Hoyt, director of the Invisible Fence Brand, said saving humans is a first priority for firefighters, but pets are also valued family members.

“We realize that humans are the first-priority, but in many cases, pets can be saved if firefighters have the right equipment,” said Hoyt. “The Project Breathe program is simply a way of giving firefighters the tools necessary to save pets’ lives.”

Local fire department personnel can make requests at www.invisiblefence.com/O2.

So far, more than 12,400 masks have been donated and more than 120 pets’ lives have been saved, according to a news release from Invisible Fence of Southeast Michigan and Northwest Ohio.

The U.S. Fire Administration doesn’t keep statistics on the number of pets that die in fires, but industry websites and other sources estimate 40,000 to 150,000 pets die each year in fires, most because of smoke inhalation, according to the company.

Dearborn Heights Fire firefighters respond to 50 to 60 structure fires a year.

“At least a few times a year, there will be pets involved,” Fire Chief David Brogan told The Press & Guide. “It’s already a tragic event; losing a pet just makes it that much worse.”

Often, he said, when a pet is trapped in an inferno, “they don’t even care about their house at that point,” Brogan said.