By THERESA BRADLEY
Miami Herald
Miami-Dade firefighters rescued six kittens and two cats from a burning home in Sweetwater today -- using oxygen masks and an ambulance to take them to an animal hospital. No one was hurt in the incident.
Seven Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded about noon to a house fire call at 10930 SW 7th Street. Heavy smoke was pouring from the front of the townhouse.
The fire, started by an unattended candle, was confined to the kitchen and extinguished. Firefighters put the soaked and dirty cats into a cardboard box and onto an ambulance as their concerned owner jumped aboard for the ride.
''We treated the cats as we would little children or infants: with oxygen and a little TLC, and took them to the hospital,’' said Fire Rescue spokesman Eric Baum.
``We’re trained to protect life and property, and they’re a victim, they’re a living being that we pulled out of there alive.’'
The brown and black striped cats were unloaded by stretcher at the Doral Centre Animal Clinic, where Dr. Anjanette Cabeza put the kittens in an incubator and treated one adult for respiratory problems with steroids, Baum said.
''It’s all in a day’s work,’' Baum said. ``We recognize how important animals are to people.’'