New Smyrna Beach, FL – The New Smyrna Beach Fire Department (NSBFD) has announced their purchase of SurgiVet Pet Oxygen Masks to help save the lives of pets suffering from smoke inhalation.
The NSBFD bought a kit of masks for every apparatus. Each kit comes with a large, medium and small mask size to fit different sized animals. Each kit costs around $100.
The United States Fire Administration says over 500,000 pets suffer from smoke inhalation every year. Around 40,000 of those animals succumb to the smoke. Since pets are smaller than humans, they are more vulnerable to smoke inhalation.
“We decided to purchase the masks because we’ve had a couple of situations, unfortunately, where the pets didn’t survive the smoke inhalation,” said NSB Fire Chief, Shawn Vandemark. All firefighters will be trained on how to use the masks and they will be put onto the apparatus soon.
Photo courtesy of the NSBFD.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2017.
