A team of firefighters from Euclid, Ohio, saved 17 pets from a house fire last week.
The team of about 16 firefighters from the Euclid Fire Department were called to the two-story house, which caught on fire due to a cardboard box on the stovetop, Northeast Ohio Media Group reported.
Upon arrival, the team quickly got the fire under control and managed to save 17 of the 19 animals in the home.
"[Firefighters] were inside fighting the fire and tripping over dogs. There's zero visibility, and they're hearing other dogs whimpering and crying throughout the house," Euclid Fire Chief Will Anderson told Northeast Ohio Media Group.
When the firefighters removed the animals from the building, they noticed that many of them were near death due to the poisons in the smoke. To keep the animals alive, the team set up a triage center in a neighbor's yard, where all of the animals were given oxygen masks and some received CPR.
Catherine Krzywicki, the human living in the house who is a member of Central Ohio Pomeranian Rescue and often helps dogs from Cleveland Animal Control, also made it out of the house safely.
Krzywicki lost her home and all her personal belongings in the incident. (Anderson told the Northeast Ohio Media group that there was about $50,000 worth damage.)
To help Krzywicki pay for her pets' medical bills (they are already more than $10,000), fellow animal rescuers in the area created this online fundraiser.
