FIRE SERVICE RELATED
SMOKEY PAWS
Smokey paws is please to announce a Partnership with SFRS to help firefighters save family pets from smoke inhalation . the partnership between the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service ( SFRS ) and the not-for-profit organisation Smokey Paws aims to make oxygen masks designed specifically for animals available for use at incidents .
Firefighters responding to house fires often attempt to provide oxygen to beloved family pets that have suffered smoke inhalation .
Masks designed for people are not always easy to use on animals , meaning SFRS crews may have to improvise in order to help save their lives .
Deputy Assistant Chief Officer John Dickie of the SFRS Response and
Resilience directorate said : “ Our crews are dedicated to saving lives and while our priority is always to protect people , there are certainly times when firefighters work to save pets .
“ A fire in the home can still be an absolutely devastating experience even when people escape unhurt .
“ Heat , flames and toxic smoke not only endanger life , cause serious injuries and leave potentially lifelong emotional trauma , they also destroy property and result in the loss of things that can never be replaced .”
He added : “ For many people a pet is a member of their family and if it suffers from breathing in smoke then they look to our crews to help save its life .
“ If this partnership with Smokey Paws means firefighters getting access to a piece of equipment that will help them to do that then it ’ s obviously something that ’ s well worth being part of .”
Smokey Paws was founded in April 2015 by couple Brian Lockyer and Lynn Carberry , who is originally from the United States , where many fire stations have the pet-sized masks .
They set-up the organisation with the aim of raising enough money to make the lifesaving kits , each of which costs around £ 90 , available to every first responder in the UK .
The partnership will see the public nominate individual fire stations to receive the kit via the Smokey Paws website : www . smokeypaws . co . uk .
Public donations will then be sought by Smokey Paws to raise the funds needed to buy the mask , which would be given to the station at no cost to SFRS .
14