A firefighter recently saved a dog, who had choked due to smoke inhalation in a fire in his apartment, in Romania with CPR. The firefighter, who managed to resuscitate the little brown dog, has received hundreds of messages praising him on Facebook.
The dog's owner, a 51-year-old man, was seriously injured and continues to be in hospital. He was taken to the hospital right after being rescued from the burning apartment on December 9 in the city of Pitesti, west of Bucharest.
The firefighter first tried to save the dog using a basic first aid technique — CPR. He pressed the dog's stomach repeatedly to relieve him of the smoke in his lungs, then he gave mouth-to-mouth, finally he attached an oxygen tank to the dog's snout, who then started reacting.
Costache Mugurel, the firefighter, did all this while sitting with bent knees over the motionless dog on the curb outside the apartment. Mugurel has won the hearts of thousands and became a local hero. He was awarded a badge of honour by the Inspector General on Monday for saving the canine.
The incident was captured by photojournalist Costi Tudor who uploaded the video on Facebook.
In the video, Mugurel, said, "Do not leave me" to the dog while trying to save its life. While the master of the dog had been sent to the hospital, the dog had been lying on the road until the firefighter started revive it.
"Nobody gets left behind," Mugurel wrote in Romanian on his personal Facebook page.
The dog was taken to a veterinary clinic for further medical attention. Another video shared by Tudor shows the dog resting inside a cage in the clinic.
Mugurel later wrote on Facebook (translated), "Thank you for the feedback, I have only done my duty."
Three fire trucks and four ambulances had raced to the location of the fire to provide emergency services.
An off-duty policeman who lived in the area had also pitched in for the rescue mission and evacuated 50 people from the building. The fire had affected the whole building and many had been stuck inside unable to breathe.
