Here’s a very interesting phenomenon that I’ve noticed over the last nine years, in regard to how firefighters deal with pets on-scene. A thread: https://twitter.com/redpawrelief/status/1287153152899403776

If I had a dollar for every time in the last nine years a firefighter or emergency personnel on-scene told me that the pet “ran out” or that it “couldn’t have survived”, I’d be tweeting this from an island somewhere.

Pro tip: Indoor cats & small dogs almost never run out. They usually hide someplace where they feel safe; in a closet, under a bed or couch. This just happened the other night. The firefighters swore up & down that the cat ran out but sadly it was found deceased under the bed.

It’s a phenomenon someone really should study. I once had a firefighter tell me he saw the cat we were searching for run past him in the hallway while on fire & then run out the front door. We found the cat deceased on the second floor. I had another firefighter once tell me

he saw the cat we were searching for jump from the bed & out the bedroom window onto a tree branch. We found the cat in the bedroom closet alive. I think these are coping mechanisms. I think firefighters want to believe all pets get out because it’s easier than the alternative.

Many times over the last 9 years during large apt bldg fires, we would wait days to get inside to search for residents’ pet. And each time, somebody on-scene, a FF, bldg mngmt, a fire marshal, etc ... would comment that there‘s no way the pets were going to be alive in the bldg.

Again, I don’t believe it’s malicious. I do think it helps them cope. But every single time we found pets alive in the bldgs. Within hours to days after retrieving the pets, the bldgs were demolished. Had we taken their word for it & not gone in, the pets would have been killed.

This has also been the case at homes that have completely collapsed & at homes that have exploded. We searched the rubble of a house that pancake collapsed for hours once for a chihuahua. His owner was taken to the hospital but released the next day.

The guy immediately went back to his house, whistled for the dog and the dog popped up out of the debris, literally not a scratch on him. A cat and collie type dog also survived. The cat from the explosion was found a few doors down also without a scratch on him!

Firefighters: Pets have and will survive. Not always but often. Owners: Do not let personnel on-scene tell you differently. Unless you see them with your own eyes, you have to assume they are still inside. Because a lot of the time they are.

Bigger dogs tend to get out with owners because they can’t run & hide under something, so they’re easy to grab & go. More worrisome is when their owner isn’t home & they run out once FFs open up the doors.

Side note FFs: Don’t just grab a pet & toss it outside thinking you’re helping. They will run away! It’s better to confine it someplace safe. Owners: That’s why a buddy system is so important! You want someone there who your dog will run to. Or who can take your cat from the FFs.

Lots of times however bigger dogs will still be inside because they are kept in a basement or confined to a room. One time, after a fire, I was inside the house trying to retrieve a dog for the owner. The owner told me that he kept the dog in the basement.

As I’m trying to go down, a firefighter coming up asked what I was looking for, so I told him, a big dog. He said the dog wasn’t down there. I went down anyway & sure enough there was a pretty good size pit bull in the basement of that house where the firefighter had just been.

That’s a situational awareness lesson! So is this one: Another time after an apt fire, one of our guys went in to search for a pit bull. There had to have been a half dozen firefighters still inside the apt swearing up & down that the dog wasn’t in there. It was.

But it was hiding under an end table & the end table was completely covered in debris. These are lessons for owners & emergency personnel. FFs: Don’t assume someone’s pet “ran out” or “didn’t survive”! You’re probably wrong. Owners: You MUST be your pets advocate!