This past Tuesday, Los Angeles dog mom, Crystal Lamirande arrived home to an unfolding nightmare. Her apartment building was on fire, and the smoke was too thick for her to save her 10-year-old Bichon/Shih-Tzu mix, Nalu. When firefighters arrived, they not only braved the engulfed building to retrieve Nalu, they spent 20 minutes giving him CPR, refusing to give up until the little dog was revived.
Andrew Klein, the firefighter who searched Lamirande’s apartment on all fours, and pulled Nalu to safety, told Global News:
“He was totally lifeless. I picked him up and ran out of the apartment because time is key, especially with a small dog … Failure was not an option.”
From the images in the video you can almost feel Lamirande’s desperation and grief as she helplessly watches the heroic firefighters working on Nalu.
An uncut cellphone video was posted to Facebook Live showing Klein and another firefighter rubbing Nalu’s belly and gently encouraging him as he starts breathing again. Lamirande expressed her gratitude for the amount of time and effort the firefighters put into saving Nalu, who she describes as family.
“His eyes were glazed over and he was not breathing and I assumed he was dead,” she said. “The firefighter said ‘I’m a positive person. Let’s just get him back.’”
Nalu was taken to a local vet where he spent 24 hours recovering in an oxygen chamber. As of Thursday, he was still coughing, but almost back to his normal self according to Lamirande.
Nalu’s hero, Andrew Klein is a self-described dog lover with two pups of his own. He told Global News he is proud of his efforts to save the little senior dog.
“He was essentially dead, so to see him kissing people and walking around wagging his tail was definitely a good feeling,” he said. “He’s very happy, and we’re very happy, too.”
H/T to Global News
Featured Images via Billy Fernando and Crystal Lamirande
