FRESNO, Calif. – The frantic effort to save a kitten's life was recorded from the first-person view of a firefighter who was searching through a destroyed home.
Fresno firefighter Cory Kalanick wore a helmet camera into a home moments after crews extinguished the flames.
As he stepped into the burned home to look for any items to salvage, Kalanick shined his light on a kitten that appeared lifeless on the floor.
"I looked down and you can actually see the cat shining in the spotlight," Kalanick told CBS affiliate KGPE. "I looked back and that's when I saw the cat and I grabbed him."
When he picked up the kitten, he discovered it was barely breathing. Kalanick rushed out of the home, grabbed life-saving gear from his truck and tried to save the kitten's life.
Kalanick placed the kitten on top of his glove so it would be safe from the hot pavement. He began pumping oxygen into the kitten through a mask and pouring cool water onto it.
"I'm getting a wet rag to cool him down a little bit," Kalanick can be heard saying through his helmet camera. "He's actually doing a lot better."
After using an entire tank of oxygen, the cat began to meow.
"It's a pretty cool thing that we were able to help the kitten out," Kalanick told KGPE.
Children who witnessed the fire told KGPE they were shocked to find out the kitten had survived.
"I thought it was dead," one boy said.