Dog pulled from Otahuhu flat blaze dies

Papatoetoe senior firefighter and animal lover Dora Dehar treating dog "Lucky Sooty" who is wrapped up in a blanket.

A dog saved from a fire at an Otahuhu flat after figherfighers administered oxygen has since died.

Emergency services were alerted to the blaze around 7.20pm. Seven crews were at the scene and there are no reports of injury to humans. The flat is in a block of six on Nikau Rd in the Auckland suburb.

Papatoetoe senior firefighter Dora Dehar was handed the dog at the scene. She thought it was in the burning flat for around 20 minutes but had no burns. The animal was suffering from smoke inhalation with a swollen throat and tongue, and dry nose. They tried syringing water onto its tongue but the dog's tongue was so swollen it couldn't get it back in his mouth.

"He wasn't in a very good shape at all, so I took him out to the front and asked someone to grab oxygen out of the first aid kit. We put him on the baby resuscitation oxygen."

Manakau after hours veterinary clinic practice manager Jedda Ford said their team are very upset that the dog has died after working on him for hours. She said they tried CPR to resuscitate him but it didn't work.

"It's not good news. The dog just passed away. We tried everything we could, the vet and nurse worked quite a long time.

"We pulled out all the stops."

Ford said they had the 2.4kg dog on oxygen the whole time, took xrays and ran a full panel of bloods. This is fully-funded by the clinic.

"The prognosis wasn't good, x-rays showed the lungs had completely collapsed."

"A dog of that size inhaling that amount of smoke the prognosis wasn't very good. He was in severe upper respiratory distress, edema and swelling.

"He had severe soot all over his coat and all in his lungs."

The dog wasn't microchipped and they have been unable to locate the owner.

Dehar earlier said the dog, that was named Lucky Sooty by the crew, looked like a long haired chihuahua. They dropped the dog at the vet.

Dehar said this was the first dog she'd given oxygen to.

"I'm an animal lover. I love dogs. It would be as upsetting to see a dog killed as it would be to see a human.

Firefighters giving oxygen to a small dog that was rescued from a house fire in Otahuhu this evening. Photo / Supplied

"If you can save that dog, it'll help the family. Because the family will lose everything in that fire."

A fire service shift manager said fire crews did not often give oxygen to dogs.

"They've been working hard to save the dog they got from the house.

"They just do everything they can."