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Technology
Our Companion Animals During an Emergency
A new app will give your furry family members a chance if an emergency happens.
While still breathing ash from the Eaton Fire and being happy to have electricity again, I’m thinking of another fire that affected people in my life.
It was December 30, 2021. What was to be later called the Marshall Fire was threatening a friend’s home.
A neighbor told Dave evacuations were underway, so Dave gathered his cats and left his home. Before leaving the neighborhood, he knocked on a few doors. Behind one was a dog, home alone in a crate in the kitchen. Chief’s barking alerted Dave to his presence. Dave and a neighbor evacuated Chief, but Dave didn’t know that a dozen other animals within a block of his home were alone and awaiting rescue that would never come.
By the end of the day over 1,000 dogs, cats, and other furry members of families would be gone.
He made it to a hotel which was then evacuated and burned. Hours later he checked into The Oxford Hotel in downtown Denver where the staff welcomed him and the cats and gave him a small sense of safety.
I was on the other end of the phone with him during the day. It was awful.
