Area fire departments receive pet oxygen mask kits through company’s donation

Lakota, a blonde Shepherd mix, sat quietly Tuesday as a pet oxygen mask was held to her face to demonstrate how one of 50 mask kits donated to Horry County fire departments will work to provide vital oxygen to an animal after they are rescued from a fire.

Invisible Fence Brand through its Project Breathe program donated the kits, which include three different sized pet oxygen masks, so that one will be carried on each fire engine in the county in the jurisdictions of Horry County, Loris, Surfside Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Murrells Inlet Garden City Fire District.

Myrtle Beach and Conway Fire Departments already carried similar kits for pets on their fire engines, officials said.

“We know how important people’s pets are and we try to save them if we can,” said Lt. Robert “Bob” Rudelitch with Loris Fire Department, who found the program and applied to get the donation. “We’ve all by experience seen an animal rescued from a house fire that needed oxygen.”

Rudelitch and Horry County Fire Rescue’s Lt. Matthew Montgomery credited their wives, who are animal lovers, with pushing them to get the donation.

“Hopefully it will produce some good results,” Montgomery said. “It’s something positive that will help.”

The kits, valued at $85 each, are among more than 3,500 kits donated by the company in South Carolina since 2008. The Project Breathe program started in 1997 and more than 10,000 kits have been donated to departments in the U.S. and Canada, said Jim White, owner of Invisible Fence Brand of Coastal Carolinas.

“We love doing it. We are thankful our customers for buying Invisible Fence Brand so we can do nice projects like this and pay the community back,” White said and noted they had donated to most larger cities in South Carolina through the program, which is aimed at getting oxygen masks on every fire engine in the U.S. and Canada.

Several animals in Horry County have been saved by either using one of the few pet oxygen masks or a human mask, said Brian VanAernem with Horry County Fire Rescue.

The most recent time was at a house fire about six months ago on Secondary Highway 668, he said.

Firefighters also have used makeshift masks made for humans to save animals.

“I’ve seen it work,” Lt. Matthew Davison with North Myrtle Beach Fire said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of life, every life matters. The change in attitude is emotional when you see someone holding on to their pet after they’ve lost everything.”

Wendy Bowen, also a North Myrtle Beach firefighter, said she often hears residents screaming for firefighters to save their pets when they arrive at a house fire.

“No one ever says save my pictures or my furniture, they are a family member,” Bowen said and noted she has four pets that are like family members to her and her husband.

Bowen and Davison said in the past they’ve used human oxygen masks to provide animals with air after they were rescued from a burning home.

“We’ve thought about the pets in the past. This covers their nose a bit better than before, so that will help,” Davison said.

Previously, Horry County firefighters had a pet oxygen mask in every battalion chief’s vehicle, but not on every fire engine in the county, officials said.

Surfside Beach also had a kit on one engine and it was used once to successfully revive an animal, said Arnold Spain, the town’s fire marshal.

“I think it’s a great thing to be able to provide for the animals and the need,” he said.

This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Area fire departments receive pet oxygen mask kits through company’s donation."