"I was prepared to douse myself with water to get him, and Todd said you can't Kim, you cannot go and I said I have to get that dog I love him," says Kim Carlson.
Kim Carlson pulled up to her South Sixth Avenue home Tuesday afternoon to find it in flames.
The fire started on the second floor in a bedroom, and inside somewhere was her 7-year-old lab, Koda.
"I ran upstairs and I only got up about half way and the smoke was so thick, and so black and I kept yelling, Koda, Koda, where are you because I knew when I left that he was lying on our bed," she says.
Firefighters found him in that bedroom, after they saw a rocking chair moving.
"I can't believe when I saw Koda come outside, they carried him out and I thought for sure he was no longer with us," says Carlson.
That's when Jared Thompson and Jamie Giese with the Wausau Fire Department stepped in and did the unthinkable.
"As they brought him down but when they laid him down on the ground we could see that he was struggling to breathe and that's when we decided to do a little mouth to snout resuscitation," says Jared and Jamie.
A decision that saved Koda's life.
Today, he's doing great and it's all because of those firefighters.
"We're firefighters, this is what we do, I don't care if it's an animal, this is what we're going to do, we're going to help anybody, anything, anywhere, anytime," says Jared and Jamie.
And it's something both Koda and Kim will be forever thankful for.
"It's truly a miracle and I'm forever grateful to Jared and Jamie and the fire department and the police department," says Carlson.
Three other animals inside the home at the time of the fire, escaped with no injuries.
All comments must adhere to the WSAW.com discussion rules.
Wausau Fire
