Firefighters Rescue 6 Doggone Lucky Pups

Call it an extraordinary case of puppy love.

A team of Los Angeles firefighters rescued six unconscious puppies from a smoke-filled garage in North Hills on Sunday and then resuscitated them with oxygen machines.

Capt. George DeMott described the rescue as “no big deal.”

But Ed Fitzpatrick, the grateful owner of the mixed German shepherd and Alaskan malamute puppies, disagreed.

“They saved every last one of them,” Fitzpatrick said. “They brought them back to life.”

The month-old puppies became trapped when flames erupted in Fitzpatrick’s garage in the 15000 block of Septo Street about 6 p.m., said Bob Collis, a Fire Department spokesman. The garage door opener was locked inside Fitzpatrick’s car, which was parked inside the structure.

Fitzpatrick and his wife, Karla, took their 6-month-old twin boys to a neighbor’s house and dialed 911.

Fitzpatrick then ran back to the garage and extinguished the fire by spraying water from a garden hose through an open window.

When firefighters arrived, Fitzpatrick told them that the puppies were trapped inside the garage.

It took DeMott and firefighter Ricardo Najera five trips to retrieve the puppies, which were sprawled throughout the smoldering structure.

“I think a couple of them had died just as we got them out,” DeMott said.

A crew of five firefighters went to work saving the animals by giving them oxygen.

“There were two puppies that we didn’t think we would be able to save, but we just kept going at it because we knew it was worth it,” DeMott said.

The fire, which caused an estimated $200 in smoke damage, was ignited by a cigarette left burning on a workbench, Collis said.