Firefighters revive dog after 20 mins of resuscitation

California firefighters who spent 20 minutes performing mouth-to-snout resuscitation on a dog they rescued from a burning apartment are being hailed as heroes.

When she learnt of the fire on Tuesday, the dog’s owner, Crystal Lamirande, frantically tried to save her dog, a 10-year-old Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu named Nalu, but the smoke was too thick for her to go inside, she said on Thursday.

Moments later firefighters arrived and one of them, Andrew Klein, sprang into action, getting on all fours to search the apartment for Nalu as another firefighter kept the flames at bay. Klein found the unconscious dog a few feet from the fire. “He was totally lifeless,” Klein said. “I picked him up and ran out of the apartment because time is key”

As Lamirande knelt nearby crying, Klein and his crew spent the next 20 minutes working on reviving the dog using oxygen, CPR and what’s known as mouth-to-snout resuscitation.

A video shows Klein and another firefighter patting Nalu’s belly as he starts breathing again with the help of oxygen.

“Alright, bud,” Klein tells the dog in the video as he encourages Nalu to walk.