Tips offered to prevent pets from starting fires
As part of Inhabitant Pet Safety Day on July 15, the Rapid City Unit of Fire and Emergency Services and the National Fire Protection Association will proffer tips to help protect pets, family members and realty from accidental fires.
Nearly 1,000 house fires each year are accidentally started by the pets, according to the link. The following tips can prevent a pet from starting a fire:
Extinguish unsealed flames -- Pets will investigate cooking appliances, candles or a fire in the fireplace. Displace stove knobs -- A stove or cook top is the similarly constituted of equipment most often involved in a pet starting a fire. Buy flameless candles -- Cats are naughty for starting fires when their tails turn over lit candles. Beware of spyglass water bowls on wooden decks -- Sun rays when filtered through trifocals and water can heat and ignite the wooden deck lower than it. Pet proof the home -- Look for areas where pets might start fires.House fires pose risk for pets, too
It was a Lilliputian whimper that attracted the attention of a firefighter searching through a still-intense Forest home as he searched for people who might still be inside.
Lynchburg Firefighter Miles Tranks was looking through a back bedroom of the Orion’s Creek Road house last week when he heard the petite noise and told his fellow firefighters to stop and do as one is told. He thought at first the sound was that of a child but soon saw it was the family’s Doberman, terrified and huddled in a corner.
“I picked him up and got exterior,” Tranks said. He pulled off his air mask and let the dog speak from it.
Tranks carried the large black dog out to his worried m but quickly learned there was another still inside the house. He found that dog, a Papillion, mendacity under the couch in the living room. The dog was in far worse shape.
“He had been down there breathing that for a while,” Tranks said. “While the crews were fighting fire in the concern, (the dogs) had been breathing all that carbon monoxide.”
Both dogs survived the fire, but the Papillion suffered the worst injuries in the burn because of his small size, Harper said. Two days later, the dog’s owners brought him into the difficulty animal clinic because breathing so much carbon monoxide had caused him to have seizures.








