One slow, steady breath at a time, officials in Riverside County saved the lives of four cats pulled from an apartment fire in Jurupa Valley earlier this week.
Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department posted a video of the incredible rescue on its Instagram feed on Tuesday.
The video shows firefighters and a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy working together to rescue and resuscitate the cats on the grass in front of the apartment.
Officials said a fire ripped through the apartment building on Emma Street on Monday. As firefighters were conducting search operations, they found four cats inside a fire-damaged apartment.
The pets were fighting for their lives.
Three of the cats were unconscious and not breathing.
The Riverside County Fire Department said firefighters and a deputy quickly moved the animals outside and “began rescue breathing.”
Additional first responders jumped in to help; officials used three oxygen tanks in the resuscitation efforts.
The team effort was swift, but calm.
In the video, one firefighter can be heard gently speaking to the cats.
“Want some oxygen?” he asked them.
Other firefighters can be seen kneeling next to the cats on the grass, giving the cats chest compressions, and cradling their heads while trying to get them to breathe.
“That’s it,” a firefighter reassuringly tells the cats. “There we go.”
As they’re giving the cats oxygen from the tanks, one firefighter directs the crew.
“Squeeze on it to see what he does,” he explains. “Any breath he takes, he gets 100% oxygen.”
As the cats start to regain consciousness, one firefighter can be seen giving them sips of water from a plastic bottle.
All four cats survived.
“Four cats are alive today because firefighters and a deputy refused to give up,” the fire department’s Instagram post read.
The fire department said the cats were soon “up and walking around,” thanks to the teamwork and determination of the crew.
“Great work by our firefighters and law enforcement partners who went above and beyond to save lives — no matter how small,” the post added.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, the Instagram post had more than 263,000 likes and nearly 10,000 comments, many of them hailing the firefighters as the cat’s pajamas.
“Sobbing in gratitude. What compassionate heroes,” one person commented.
“Thank you for caring so much!” another person wrote.
“I’m not crying, you’re crying,” read another comment.