Woman thought she lost pet dog in house fire—firefighter's TV lesson brought dog back to life
When Kim Carlson and her fiancé, Todd Borchardt, learned that their house was on fire, they rushed to the scene, according to a report from TODAY. The duo wasn’t at home at the time and returned to find the Wasau Fire Department on the scene. When the woman learned that her pet dog, Koda, was still inside the burning house, she almost rushed towards it. A firefighter, Jamie Giese, bravely jumped into action when the dog was brought out. Unfortunately, he was unconscious due to the smoke but Giese recalled an important lesson that saved the canine’s life.
The fire is believed to have been started due to a malfunctioning box fan. Todd’s Son, Dwight, was the only one home with the pets when the fire broke out. He managed to get three of his pets, Cooper the border collie and a pair of cats, Lavender and Mocha, out with him. Koda was underneath a rocking chair and the fire was quickly spreading. The couple arrived on the scene shortly after and learned that their 7-year-old Labrador was still stuck inside. “My first reaction was to go upstairs and check upstairs but it was just entirely too smoky,’’ Carlson recalled.
The pet mom was worried sick about her canine and was willing to go above and beyond to try to rescue him. “It was so black that you couldn’t see anything in front of you. My first reaction was that I wanted to cover myself in water and cover my face and mouth and go up and get him myself, knowing that’s not the right thing to do,” she remarked. When the firefighters learned the pet was still trapped, they made their way inside. In the last room of their search, they found the canine. The room was reportedly on fire when they spotted the pet but they managed to bring him out to safety. Because he was unconscious, everyone thought the canine tragically lost his life.
However, Giese, being a first responder and a pet parent himself, knew he didn’t want to leave any chance. “We’ve got to work this dog,’’ he told a fellow firefighter, Jared Thompson. When he looked closely and noticed the dog struggling to breathe, he knew he had to act fast. That’s when he recalled something he’d watched on TV. “We could tell he was trying to breathe and our training for humans is airway, breathing, circulation,” he recalled. Remembering what he could, he decided to try assisted breathing. “We had no tools handy, so it was mouth-to-snout,” the firefighter remarked.
Giese helped the canine get some breath back and quickly put on a human oxygen mask for him. “I have never been trained in that. I’ve seen it on TV and pictures in the newspapers and things like that,” he mentioned. The canine was quickly transported to an animal hospital in Wausau and then to the Central Wisconsin Animal Emergency Center. He received emergency treatment and after days of recovery, he was all well. "I don't care if it's a human, a baby, a child, an animal — this is what we're going to do. We're going to help anybody, anything, anywhere, and anytime," Thompson remarked, per CBS News. The family is eternally grateful to the firefighters who risked their lives to go in and get their beloved pet. They will forever remember Giese’s prompt action to give it his all to save a precious life.