The Animal Welfare League of Frederick County donated a set of three oxygen masks to Fort Detrick Fire and Emergency Services on March 1 as part of a plan to outfit the county's more than 100 fire engines with the specialized masks.

"If someone loses their home, they definitely don't want to lose their pet too," said Ellen Gardiner, president of the Animal Welfare League.

In 2005, Detrick firefighters responded to 87 residential fires. If they needed to resuscitate a pet, they made do by using human oxygen masks.

"It kind of gets the oxygen in the general area, but they have to work to get it," said Melanie Biesecker, a firefighter with Detrick's Fire Station 50 who received the donation. "This one actually fits over their snout so they can get more oxygen."

The animal oxygen masks come in three sizes: one for large dogs, one for small dogs and one for cats. A seal at the end of the mask ensures no oxygen goes to waste. Detrick's new masks will be stowed with the emergency medical equipment on the fire engine that responds first to Fort Detrick and off-post calls

Karen Barnes, a contractor who works on Fort Detrick, first brought the cone-shaped masks to the Animal Welfare League's attention when she discovered them on Help Animals' Web site. The Florida-based nonprofit has a video on its site showing a dog coming back to life after receiving oxygen. Impressed and inspired, Barnes then asked the league's board to fund the fire house donation project, and the volunteers were off and running.

"Two weeks after I approached AWLFC with the idea, Lt. Edie Rinehart's picture appeared in the paper carrying a cat from a fire," Barnes said. "We agreed that the first one should go to Lt. Rinehart," who works for the Junior Fire Company in Frederick. Biesecker, coincidentally, recently passed an unconscious Dalmatian to Rinehart for resuscitation during a house fire.

Pets can become frantic during a house fire, and many times they get scared and hide, Gardiner said.

"I found one dog that had its nose buried under the cushions of a couch, just because it was trying to get fresher air," Biesecker said. "They get overcome by the smoke just like a human does."

If pets or people do succumb to smoke inhalation, oxygen is considered the best treatment.

When Biesecker visits youth at day care centers and schools, she said she can guarantee a child will ask if firefighters will save pets' lives. While rescuing humans is the priority during a fire, she said firefighters don't let pets perish if they can help it. They've rescued everything: cats, dogs, guinea pigs, birds and fish. She remembers on one call that a woman had 50 to 60 cats that firefighters were "passing back" to save them from their burning home.

"We do everything we can to get the pets out because pets are part of a family," Biesecker said. "If you can save their property or something of value inside their house, that means a lot to them. To me a pet is one of the better things that you can save."

Barnes's affiliation with Detrick helped the post receive one of the first sets of donated masks.

"I approached Frederick County Fire and Fort Detrick as two separate places at the same time since Fort Detrick is not under Frederick County," she said. "Maybe someone who didn't work here wouldn't have considered Fort Detrick right away."

So far, the Animal Welfare League has provided oxygen masks, which cost about $50 a set, to four fire houses in Frederick and one in Washington County. With 96 more fire engines in the county to outfit, they've started raising funds to purchase more masks. People can donate via their Web site, www.AWLFC.org, and league volunteers will be accepting donations at a cat adoptathon March 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Dawg Wash on East Patrick Street.

Though Biesecker hasn't resuscitated an animal, she has seen results firsthand.

"I've been amazed to see how many animals have been resuscitated," she said. "When you do bring them out, they don't look so well, but give them some oxygen and they do fairly well if you can give it to them in time."