It is rather common - as long as the situation is assessed, the manpower present and the proper safety gear on hand - for firefighters to attempt to rescue housepets.
Not every building on fire presents the same safety issues. If it’s an unstable structure, they won’t go in for pets *or *people. If it’s a fairly well contained fire and all the people are out, they’ll go in for cats. They found ours hiding in the basement. There was no better moment that day than watching Ginger try to claw the fuck out of that handsome burly fireman in full gear as he jogged across the street to deposit her smoky waterlogged furry self into my 9 year old arms.
Our local firefighters have a charity running to supply fire trucks with pet oxygen masks. 75 bucks per truck. It’s been very successful.
The thought of this worries me to death. There’s one we could never get in a fire. Two maybe. The dog yes. Now that we have a baby the equations are totally different. I feel sick thinking about it.
The only good thing would be if the cat hides on the floor - under most of the smoke and gas.
The ones which go to high perch are toast. Sorry, but be real - either train the hell out of them to know “GO! NOW!” or decide that throwing a pot through a window as you leave is the best chance kitty has.
A cat will run from open flame - carbon monoxide, not so much.
My (now indoor, to her occasional regret) will occasionally make a break for it if I don’t complete shut the slider - one time she was making her escape when there was an explosion (gunshot).
She had made it past me and was free to play her little “keep away” game when it went off - she froze, looked at me. I said “INSIDE! NOW!” she knows both of those. Easiest retrieval to date.
You know that spot they retreated to? Get a box that fits it perfectly, making sure it’s got a hole into it the cat can get through. Also attach a string that you can use to quickly put the box out from beneath the couch, in but a moment.
I’d bet they will always head directly to the already chosen safe spot whenever they panic. If there was a box there they’d get into it. If it had a string you could just grab that and pull out box and cat quite easily and quickly!
If your door won’t stay open, how about a window? Granted, unlike hollywood, most windows have screens in real life, so if you try that, make sure to open the screen as well. Of course how high you are may make this impractical, how high can a cat fall from safely? Still even if he got injured, I imagine it would be better than burning to death (just saying that makes me sad).
Yeah, that open window thing isn’t a great idea. I had friends who did this, and everything was fine for a couple of years, no worries. Then, one night, a skunk came right in following the cat. And then sprayed. In their bedroom. While they were asleep.
Imagine waking up to that! And the skunk is still in your house! And pissed!
A fire door (which is what Asimovian’s “heavy … closes on its on” door is) propped open to let a pet escape led to a woman’s death (and contributed to the injuries of nine others) a couple of years ago in Chicago:
