Vancouver firefighters are being praised for their efforts to save a dog from a house fire over the weekend.
Firefighters found the seven-month-old Labrador retriever in the basement of a burning home on East 60th Avenue on Saturday.
They brought the unconscious lab outside and quickly went to work administering oxygen through a mask designed for dogs. They also treated the dog for minor burns.
“From my understanding now, that dog spent a rough 24 hours, but is healing from his injuries and has survived, so we’re pretty excited about that,” Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services chief Karen Fry said.
“So many times we go to incidents like these and we have animals perish in fires. So it’s really good when we have a good news story like this.”
Fry said the residents of the home did the right thing by not going back into the burning building to rescue their pet.
“If you know that you have a pet in your house, do not go back in to save a pet from any fire,” she said. “But really make an opportunity when our first firefighters arrive on scene to let us know. Then we’ll be looking for that in the course of fighting that fire.”