Ambulances carry devices to help your furry friends in a fire

You may have seen on our news a few weeks ago about a pet that was saved after using a pet oxygen mask after being rescued from a fire.

And if you've ever owned a pet, you know how these guys become family when they enter your home.

The Sturgis, Rapid City, and a few other fire departments around the black hills now have pet oxygen mask in the ambulance.

They were donated by the Emma Zen Foundation and this is how they work.

Founder and President of the Emma Zen Foundation, Debra Jo Chiapuzio, says "before that all they had were human masks and what they would do is lay it on the side on its side in front of the animal snout and they would turn the air up very high and that was considered blow-by air and hopes that, that would resuscitate an animal so with these directly on the snail delivering them directly into the nostrils they are much more efficient than any other process that they've had before."

Emma Zen is known around the nation and at the Sturgis rally for being the biker dog that sits in the side car of her owner.

They even took a trip to meet a family that had their dog saved by the masks her organization donated.

The father of that family was thankful because a family member was still alive.

"We lost so much but we didn't lose our dog and therefore our children are OK and there's no way we can put any kind of value big enough on that," explained Chiapuzio as she tried to fight back her tears of joy.

These are not exclusive to just dogs but any animal.

In KOTA Territory we are still sitting in moderate to high fire danger so make sure you are doing everything around your house to mitigate a fire from spreading.

If you would like to know more information about the Emma Zen foundation visit http://www.emmazenfoundation.org/ or you can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EmmaZenFoundation/.