When firefighters go into a burning building to rescue those inside, they sometimes need to administer oxygen to the people they’ve pulled out, even for the pets they save.
Fire departments around Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach, have animal-sized oxygen masks that firefighters can use to administer oxygen to animals they pull from structure fires, said Art Kohn, Virginia Beach Fire Department spokesman.
Getting those oxygen masks to the stations was a coordinated effort, however.
Gary Brittingham, a retired Virginia Beach firefighter, coordinated efforts some 10 years ago to get animal-sized masks for the fire engines and rescue teams.
“I’ve been rescuing animals for a while,” he said.