FAILED FIXTURE SPARKS A WAVE OF GENEROSITY
Electrician’s good deed launches army of home repair good Samaritans
Gloria Scott decided it was time to call an electrician in early August after she f lipped on a light switch in her kitchen and sparks f lew out of an overhead fixture, tripping her circuit breaker.
“My house was in such disrepair — I knew it was bad and I thought I’d be spending some time in darkness,” she said.
Electrician John Kinney fixed the problem and got her lights working again. But when he returned to his own home that weekend, he said he couldn’t stop thinking about Scott, 72, living with her dog in her dilapidated
house in Woburn, Mass., a suburban working-class community about 12 miles outside of Boston.
“She reminded me of my nana, who passed away 10 years ago,” said Kinney, 37, who runs Kinney Electric.
“It made me sad to think of her sitting alone in a house that needed so many repairs,” he said.
“Her wiring was in bad shape and there were extension cords everywhere. I really worried
dozen pets trapped in house fires in recent years in Redlands, said firefighter Brent Fuller with the Redlands Fire Department.
“I’ve personally used them on dogs and cats at least 10 times,” Fuller said. “It’s a rewarding feeling to revive an animal that has given unconditional love to a family.”
Until Chiapuzio donated masks to his department, he and other firefighters had to rely on human oxygen masks that didn’t fit properly around a pet’s small face, he said.
“If we pulled a dog or cat out of smoky conditions, we’d do our best to seal the human mask around its face,” Fuller said. “But they weren’t very effective because the animal wouldn’t get enough oxygen.”
Nine years after she started the initiative, Chiapuzio estimates her foundation has raised enough money to donate more than 7,500 kits containing three sizes of masks (small for puppies and kittens; medium and large for bigger dogs and cats, as well as the occasional potbellied pig) to about 650 fire departments. Most of them are in Western states, she said.
“Last week, I was sitting in front of the TV watching news about the fires in California, Arizona, Oregon and Colorado, and I was relieved to see that every single fire department mentioned carried our equipment,” Chiapuzio said.
Although she hasn’t heard whether her foundation’s pet masks were used in the recent wildfires, she felt comforted knowing they were available, she said.
Until the pandemic hit, Chiapuzio said she taught pet safety classes throughout Southern California to educate owners on how to react if their animals were poisoned, hit by a car or suffered puncture wounds.
“I’d show them what to put in a pet first-aid kit and how to use those items,
including how to check an animal’s breathing and deliver CPR if necessary,” she said.
Fire captains up and down the West Coast said they are grateful that she reached out and offered to give them the pet oxygen masks.
Because of tight budgets, most fire departments aren’t able to purchase and replenish pet oxygen mask kits on their own, said Bill
Metcalf, a recently retired San Diego fire chief.
Metcalf, 64, worked with Chiapuzio to ensure that all of the engines in San Diego County were outfitted with veterinarian-quality oxygen masks purchased by the Emma Zen Foundation from a national medical supply company.
“Our normal equipment isn’t well suited to helping our animal friends when they’ve suffered trauma in a fire or vehicle crash,” he said.
Erika Skipper said the masks saved her puppy’s life.
The mother of five from Redlands came home from picking up her children at school one afternoon three years ago and found the bottom level of her house on fire.
“The dishwasher had exploded and the entire house was filled with black smoke,” said Skipper, 41. “My kids could only think of one thing: our new Shih Tzu puppy, Penelope.”
Skipper frantically dialed 911, and firefighters were at her house within minutes. They found Penelope in her kennel, submerged in rapidly rising water from the emergency sprinkler system, she said.
“She was barely breathing when she was brought out, but they revived her with one of their special pet masks, then transported her to the vet,” Skipper said.
“When we went to see her, the kids were thrilled,” she said. “They’d lost all their toys and everything in the house was smoke-damaged. But we had our dog back. It was like a miracle.”
Her family now donates every year to the Emma Zen Foundation, hoping to give other pet owners a happy outcome, Skipper said.
“I know how traumatic it would have been to lose our dog that day,” she said. “Not every pet is as lucky.”
For Chiapuzio, who shares her home with Emma Zen, a potbellied pig named Baby Binks, a 200pound tortoise, three parrots and a cat, stories like Skipper’s help keep her motivated.
“Just recently, a reptile store in the area burned down,” she said. “The fire department helped rescue the reptiles and I saw a picture of an iguana wearing an oxygen mask.”
“I was happy to see it was one of ours,” Chiapuzio said. r