In The News > Giving Back > Project Breathe > Fire Rescue

2/19/2013 - Town of Caledon Better Prepared to Handle Pet-Related Emergencies

The donation is part of "Project Breathe^™" by Invisible Fence^® Brand which aims to equip every fire station in Canada, the United States and the U.K with pet oxygen masks.

Fire Rescue

8/14/2012
“I was happy the crew made an effort to locate the pet, find it and bring it out,” said police chief Mark Willis. “They went right to work to resuscitate it and were successful.”

Newton Kansan - When Newton Fire/EMS arrived at the scene of a house fire at 912 S. Ash Sunday afternoon, there was no one inside except the family dog.

Firefighters were able to get the dog out of the house, and administer CPR to save the dog’s life. It was the first time the department used a pet oxygen mask kit given by Invisible Fence of Central Kansas.

“I was happy the crew made an effort to locate the pet, find it and bring it out,” said police chief Mark Willis. “They went right to work to resuscitate it and were successful.”

Newton Fire/EMS and the Newton Police Department made sure the dog was taken to an animal hospital for treatment.

“From what I have been told the dog is doing well and the family was happy for that,” Willis said. “It was a tragic loss for their house and belongings.”

On other hospitalization came as result of the fire — a Newton Fire/EMS worker suffered heat exhaustion during the efforts to bring the fire under control. He was transported to Newton Medical Center for treatment and was expected out of the hospital Monday.

Willis said the cause of a fire which caused more than $120,000 in damages to the home and contents is still under investigation —however the fire was ruled accidental.

All human occupants of the home left the house about 30 minutes before the fire started.

When fire broke out, it consumed the back side of the house — smoke billowed out the home, drifting across U.S. 50 which is about a half mile from the home.

At least 10 calls came to 911 to report the fire at about 2:15 p.m. Sunday.

“The entire back end of the house was fully involved on our crew’s arrival and it had extended into the residence and caught an attached garage behind the residence. We had a tremendous amount of fire to contend with,” Willis said. “We were able to get it extinguished pretty quickly, but there is extensive damage. It had a pretty good head start on us.”

Willis said the house was not classified as a total loss — though there was extensive damage from fire, heat and smoke throughout the home.

The plume of smoke led to extra traffic in the area, as Newton residents curious about the fire tried to drive into the neighborhood. Willis said when he arrived at the scene there was a “mini traffic jam” as the neighborhood streets filled with extra traffic.

Newton Police closed off streets to try and alleviate traffic issues and allow for Fire Dept. to work unhindered.?“It was so visible, from so many parts of the city,” Willis said. “The police did a great job, there was such a volume of traffic in the area from people coming to see where the smoke was coming from.”