PLUMSTED — On Feb. 17 the Plumsted Township Fire District No. 1 received a surprise from Robert Richardson and his canine, Bryan Freidrich, a township resident, and Allison Halperin and her canine, Cody, a representative of Canine Fence. A donation of 10 pet oxygen mask kits arrived at the fire station. These mask kits are part of a program that is being run through Invisible Fence Brand called Project Breathe.
According to a press release from the fire district, Invisible Fence Brand is in the business of saving pets’ lives and strongly believes in programs that not only keep pets safe in their yards, but safe from other hazards like house fires.
Although the number of pets that die in fires is not an official statistic kept by the U.S. Fire Administration, industry websites and sources have cited that an estimated 40,000 to 150,000 pets die each year in fires, with most succumbing to smoke inhalation. Inmost states, emergency responders are not equipped to deal with the crisis because they lack specially designed pet oxygen masks.
To fill this need, Invisible Fence Brand started the pet oxygen mask donation program to provide oxygen mask kits to first responders. Each kit includes a small, medium and large mask.
In Plumsted, the fire district gave four masks to the New Egypt First Aid and Rescue Squad and the rest are on the fire apparatus. This way, anytime there is an emergency, the township’s emergency services are able to handle the call, according to the press release.
The Plumsted Township Board of Fire Commissioners, the New Egypt Fire Company and the New Egypt First Aid and Rescue Squad thanked Invisible Fence Brand for Project Breathe, Canine Fence, and the Richardsons for thinking of the emergency services organizations.