A California firefighter went above and beyond to save a dog that collapsed from heat and smoke.
Last week, a fire started at an apartment unit in Santa Monica, and firefighters found a dog named Nalu who was unresponsive, wasn’t breathing, and didn’t even have a pulse.
“I discovered him amidst all the smoke and the heat,” firefighter Andrew Klein told KABC. “I grabbed him and as soon as I grabbed him I knew that he was unresponsive just by his ᴅᴇᴀᴅ weight.”
Klein performed CPR, which firefighters call “mouth-to-snout,” on the pup, and then administered an oxygen mask. After 20 minutes, the dog started breathing on its own.
He gained consciousness and started walking around. Eventually, neighbors took him to a local animal hospital.
Nalu’s owner, Crystal Lamirande, came home to find her apartment on fire; she tried to save Nalu, who is a Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu mix, but couldn’t get through the smoke. Lamirande told KABC she lost everything in the fire, but has a newfound bond with her local fire department.
“It was pretty amazing because I’ve been on a number of animal rescues like this that did not come out the same way that Nalu’s story did,” Klein told KTLA. “It was definitely a win for the whole team and the department that we got him back.”
Firefighters took care of the fire in 10 minutes, and no humans were harmed in the blaze.
