July 19, 2024, 6:34 am | Read time: 5 minutes
When a fire breaks out in a house, there is naturally a great fear for your own life, but also for your belongings. For pet owners, there is also a paralyzing fear for their dog, cat, and other animal housemates. What is the right thing to do when in doubt? And how can a certain sticker help firefighters and pets in the event of a fire? PETBOOK editor Louisa Stoeffler found out and reports on her experience.
A few years ago, there was a fire on my street. In a house across the road, an attic apartment burned down completely, with flames spreading. I wasn’t at home at the time and only received a message with a photo of what had happened. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. So I immediately asked my partner to go down to the cellar to get the cat box and lock the bedroom so that our cat couldn’t escape under the bed. I then asked him to wait to see what the fire department said. Since then, we’ve always kept the transport box in the apartment in case of an emergency. I keep replaying in my head what the right thing to do is. If in doubt, a pet sticker can help the fire department to find pets.
What to do in the event of a fire in the house
If you have a dog, it is probably easiest to secure it in the event of an emergency that requires you to leave the house. A leash, harness, or collar can be quickly grabbed and put on.
With many other pets, including cats, it’s a different story. Since my experience, I have always kept the cat box in my home. Close at hand, and quickly ready to use in case of an emergency. Similar containers are also available for small animals. However, if you have anxious cats or rabbits that have a lot of hiding places in the apartment or house, they can often be impossible to find. In the event of a fire, you need to get to safety quickly and don’t have time to lure the animals out.
The animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten has therefore compiled tips for emergencies like fires and disasters on its website. It recommends having an emergency bag ready. This should contain food and water for at least five days and, depending on the type of animal, bowls, medication, a collar, a leash, and a blanket. Documents such as the pet’s passport or vaccination record should also be included. Individual particularities should also be noted. Such as allergies or food intolerances, necessary medication, and the contact details of the vet treating your pet.
Getting used to the transport box
When there was a fire in our neighborhood, Remo hadn’t been with us for long. I had only used his transport box to pick him up from the animal shelter and bring him home. In an emergency, I would not have been prepared to put him in his box with the necessary routine.
That’s why Vier Pfoten recommends removing the fear of the transport box. Especially in cases where the animals are not able to walk on their own. Therefore, the animal welfare organization advises keeping the transport box permanently in the pet’s living area and periodically hiding treats inside it.
Stickers for the fire department could save your pet
But what if I don’t have time to prepare my pets and have to leave the house or apartment with the firefighters? According to the animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten, a simple and effective measure to ensure that your pet is rescued in an emergency like a fire is a large sticker on the front door. It should contain information such as the type, number, and names of the animals in the household. This allows rescue workers to quickly identify which animals need to be rescued.
“It is not uncommon for pets to die in house fires because the emergency services are unaware that there are animals in the house. Small animals in particular, such as rabbits and guinea pigs, are unable to make themselves loudly heard,” says pet expert Sarah Ross from Vier Pfoten.
In 2017, the animal welfare organization launched a cooperation with the German, Austrian, and Swiss firefighters’ associations, Tobias Udave, press spokesperson for pets at Vier Pfoten, tells PETBOOK. This cooperation was initiated in Switzerland, and these emergency kits are still available to buy on a Swiss online store.
However, there is currently no official cooperation with the fire department associations. When asked, a spokesperson for the German Fire Brigade Association told PETBOOK that it was not possible to estimate exactly how the campaign had developed and how many households had displayed the relevant stickers. “However, we believe that the campaign has been valuable simply because pet owners have addressed the question, ‘What happens to my pet in the event of a fire or accident?’ And every owner who has done this is a little better prepared thanks to the campaign than without it.”
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The PETBOOK “Save my pet” sticker
Tobias Udave tells PETBOOK that Vier Pfoten still distributes free emergency kits for pets during campaigns. This is because, “even without official cooperation, pet owners can use the sticker included in the kit to alert the fire department of pets needing rescue in the event of a fire.”
The PETBOOK editorial team is also dedicated to ensuring that pets can be located by the fire department in an emergency, and we have therefore created our own sticker. This can be downloaded below. If there is more than one pet of each species, this can be noted in the white boxes.
