Local kennel donates oxygen masks for pets to Roanoke Fire Department

Masks work like human masks, but shaped to fit pets' faces

ROANOKE, Va. – Firefighters in one region are now better prepared to help your pets in an emergency thanks to new equipment.

The Roanoke Kennel Club donated two pet oxygen masks to the fire department.

The masks work just like a human mask, but are shaped to fit the face of cats and dogs.

Tiffany Bradbury, the fire department's community risk reduction specialist, reached out to the Kennel Club at the suggestion of a firefighter who wanted the masks for the department's two new vehicles.

"We used it on a big mastiff one time and we were able to bring that dog back. We've also used it on some cats," Bradbury said. "It used to be that we would just take an oxygen mask that you would use on a human and just kind of pass it along their snout, so you're not getting that oxygen really down for them to be able to breathe it in."

All of the department's emergency vehicles now have the masks.