A recent donation to the Lemont Fire Protection District will have pets all over the village breathing easier.

The Fire Department received several oxygen recovery masks for pets, which will prevent the four-legged friends from falling victim to smoke inhalation due to fire.

Four recovery kits were donated to the department from Invisible Fence of Chicagoland. Each kit contains three pet oxygen masks in small, medium and large sizes.

The masks work just the same as human oxygen masks, with a cord to tighten around the head and a tube that pumps out pure oxygen when hooked up to a tank.

Several years ago, Al Bengtsson, Lemont EMS director, had been at a house fire where a German Shepherd was carried out of a home unresponsive.

Medical officials attempted to save the dog with a vocational mask, as well as CPR, before rushing the animal to an emergency veterinarian clinic. But because the oxygen mask was too large to provide a tight seal for the snout, the dog succumbed to smoke inhalation.

“I wish now we’d had these pet masks to use on the dog because they do provide a tighter seal, and it probably would have been more successful,” Bengtsson said.

Kelly Stancato, of Invisible Fence of Chicagoland, said an estimated 40,000 pets nationwide died in fires in 2006. Most succumbed to smoke inhalation.

“That shocked us,” she said. “We wanted to do something about that.”

The donation of these specially designed and potentially lifesaving animal oxygen mask sets will enable Lemont Rescue Squads to efficiently administer oxygen to a stricken animal.

Stancato was at the Lemont Fire Protection District Sept. 22 to show fire officials how to use the masks.

One set of masks will be placed on each of the district’s ambulances, Bengtsson said.

“We hope to put these in service as quickly as possible,” he said. “We believe that these kits will help us save more pets.”