Pets treated for smoke inhalation after kitchen fire

EMTs administered oxygen to a dog and two cats suffering from smoke inhalation after a kitchen fire at a Pipestone home yesterday afternoon. It was the first time the Pipestone County Ambulance Service has administered oxygen to animals.


 

 

A kitchen fire at a Pipestone home injured no people the afternoon of Wednesday, May 4, but left three pets suffering from smoke inhalation.

Steve Ewing, Pipestone County Ambulance director, said EMTs administered oxygen to a chihuahua and two cats that were in the house at 901 5th St. SE at the time of the fire.

“It’s the first time we’ve used oxygen masks on pets,” Ewing said.

The Ambulance Service does not have pet oxygen masks like those the Pipestone Fire Department received about a year and a half ago, so they used their regular oxygen masks. Ewing

 

 

said the masks don’t fit well around the mouth and nose of animals, but they were still able to increase the oxygen intake to the animals that were acting “pretty docile” when emergency responders arrived on the scene.

“It definitely did help,” Ewing said.

He said the EMTs worked with the pets for around 45 minutes, giving them oxygen and cleaning soot off them. The pets were then taken to the veterinarian for examination.

There were no people in the home when the fire began and other pets in the home appeared to be unaffected by the smoke.

 [/caption] />Corey Popma, Pipestone fire chief, said a cardboard box was left on top of the stove and caught fire, filling the kitchen with smoke. He said it appeared the fire had burned itself out once the box was gone and that someone had sprayed the stovetop with a fire extinguisher before firefighters arrived.

Popma said the family planned to stay with family until the damage to the house could be addressed.

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