Firefighters successfully saved lives for the third time this week when they rescued a Yorkshire Terrier from a burning house in Midwood yesterday morning. After firefighters rescued the dog, Daina Mielnik of Engine Co. 276 performed CPR and, with the help of a man from a nearby animal shelter, gave the dog oxygen. "It was barely breathing," Mielnik tells the Post. "I gave the dog oxygen. It's my first animal rescue. It made me feel great. I love animals. Everyone hates to see an animal in pain."
A group of teenage boys from a nearby Orthodox Jewish school also played a role in the rescue. They spotted the fire from their classroom and rushed over to the house before the FDNY arrived, successfully alerting the occupants—Kenya Robinson and her 2-year-old daughter. "We told the lady, she thought something was burning in the oven or something," student Danny Tliv tells ABC 7. "She grabbed her child. The dog ran back in the house, she ran out." (Watch the nightly news segment from the scene below.)
Ira Brown, of the Heaven Can Wait Rescue for animals, was also at the scene and helped treat the Terrier after firefighters brought it out. "He was struggling to breathe, but wasn't giving up," says Brown. The pet was taken to Noah's Ark animal clinic in critical condition, and was in a hyperbaric chamber last night. "He was brought in unconscious, but now he is responsive," Dr. Brian Abraham tells the Post. "We are monitoring him and trying to do what we can. I think he's got a good chance." And firefighter Daina Mielnik, 26, hopes she has a good chance of getting a date out of this—she asked the tabloid to let everyone know she's single!
