Pets And Fires – Keeping Your Pets Safe

With all the recent fires in California, we wanted to share some tips for keeping your pets safe if evacuation is ever needed.

These tips are from the American Red Cross. Please remember to always have a plan in place for evacuation for you, your family and four legged babies!

In order to help firefighters find your pets, The Red Cross suggests the following:

• Keep pets near entrances when away from home. Keep collars on pets and leashes at the ready in case firefighters need to rescue your pet. When leaving pets home alone, keep them in areas or rooms near entrances where firefighters can easily find them.
• Affix a pet alert window cling and write down the number of pets inside your house and attach the static cling to a front window. This critical information saves rescuers time when locating your pets. Make sure to keep the number of pets listed on them updated.

Listening to evacuation orders is crucial. It is smart to practice what you would do in an evacuation with these helpful tips:

• The best way to protect your pets from the effects of a fire is to include them in your family plan. This includes having their own disaster supplies kit as well as arranging in advance for a safe place for them to stay if you need to leave your home.
• When you practice your escape plan, practice taking your pets with you. Train them to come to you when you call.
• In the event of a disaster, if you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them, too. But remember: never delay escape or endanger yourself or family to rescue a family pet.

Check The American Red Cross for other helpful fire tips.