A six-year-old Labrador retriever named Lucy survived roughly 40 minutes trapped inside a burning home in Westport, Massachusetts, before firefighters pulled her out and rushed her to a veterinarian. She's back home now, but her family says the recovery will take months, and her ordeal has become the center of a growing push to put more oxygen masks built for animals onto local fire engines.
Forty Minutes Trapped, Then a Desperate Rescue
The fire broke out September 16 at 1974 Main Road in the historic village of Westport Point, in a residential building physically attached to the U.S. Post Office's Westport Point branch, according to EastBayRI. The post office itself sustained no damage and reopened the following day, EastBayRI reported, even as the attached home burned. Municipal property records list James S. Acierno Jr. as the owner of both the residence and the adjoining post office property, the outlet noted.
Firefighters from five jurisdictions — Westport, Tiverton, Little Compton, and Dartmouth Fire Districts 2 and 3 — responded to the blaze, EastBayRI reported, and one Westport firefighter was hospitalized for heat exhaustion during the effort. Crews found Lucy and Acierno's two cats trapped inside. Per The Cool Down, firefighters rescued Lucy about 40 minutes after she became trapped and immediately brought her to a veterinarian.
Owner Recalls Screaming Her Name
Jim Acierno, Lucy's owner, told the outlet he repeatedly screamed for his dog during the fire and that nothing else mattered in that moment. He described finding her afterward with her head lolling and her tongue hanging out, a memory he said he can't shake. Acierno said he could deal with losing his house but not with losing Lucy.
Lucy received more than a week of veterinary treatment, per the same account, and according to the Westport Fire Department, that care amounted to 10 days of intensive ICU treatment, including specialized high-flow oxygen therapy, at Baystate Emergency in Swansea. She was discharged home on September 30. Acierno said Lucy initially refused food brought to the hospital before suddenly improving, a turning point he described as a relief after a difficult stretch.
Cats Rescued Too, Now in Temporary Care
Firefighters also pulled Acierno's two cats from the structure. The animals were evaluated by emergency veterinarians and are being temporarily housed with the local Humane Society while Acierno secures long-term housing, according to a GoFundMe page set up on his behalf. The Cool Down reported that WJAR did not detail the cats' current health status.
Lucy herself is walking, eating, and wagging her tail again, Acierno said, but she suffered lung damage and other major health issues from smoke exposure and still experiences coughing and easy fatigue. Her ongoing care includes one hour of treatment twice daily, covering eye treatment and chest percussion meant to help loosen congestion in her lungs. The GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $16,000 toward her veterinary expenses, per WJAR's reporting.
A Push for Pet Oxygen Masks on Every Truck
Acierno has urged people to donate pet-specific oxygen masks to fire departments, saying the equipment could help other animals survive what Lucy went through. He said he wants Lucy to have a good and comfortable life after surviving the fire.
The stakes behind that appeal are significant. Roughly 40,000 pets die in U.S. residential house fires annually, mostly from smoke inhalation, out of about 500,000 pets affected by home fires each year, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, as cited by Morningstar. In Massachusetts alone, about 30,000 fire incidents occur each year, with nearly half happening in residential homes, according to the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association Charities.
That charity runs a statewide program equipping fire departments with three-mask pet oxygen kits, sized to fit everything from small birds to large dogs, for a $125 donation per kit, according to reporting from Itemlive. Standard human oxygen masks leak significantly when placed over an animal's snout, reducing how much oxygen actually reaches a struggling pet's lungs. Nationally, corporate and nonprofit equipment drives — including Invisible Fence Brand's 20-year Project Breathe initiative — have donated more than 27,000 specialized pet oxygen mask kits to first responder departments across North America, per Morningstar.
Massachusetts has had pets on its emergency planning radar for over a decade. Under a 2014 state law signed by then-Gov. Deval Patrick, every municipality in the Commonwealth is required to maintain emergency operational plans that explicitly account for the evacuation and care of household pets and service animals during disasters, according to the DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness. The law was enacted in part to keep residents from refusing evacuation orders in order to stay behind with their pets. Even with that mandate in place, the equipment needed to resuscitate a pet on-scene, like the oxygen masks Acierno is now asking people to donate, still depends largely on charitable giving rather than direct municipal funding.
