Photos Arrived Today

Some pictures of Sparkles' Memorial Service last year just surfaced. Will be posting most of them later, but did want to go ahead and share a few. Sparkles' Memorial Service was held at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, MD. The service was held on "Sparkles' Pathway." Sparkles' Pathway is part of the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation's Walk of Honor. To watch a video of her service or to learn more about Sparkles' Pathway, please click HERE.

Wayne Powell

Dr. Kirby Kiefer, Deputy Superintendent, National Fire Academy

Ken Farmer, Branch Chief, United States Fire Administration

Linda Hurley, Director of Survivor Programs, National Fallen Firefighter Foundation

Mike Weller

Ryan Czech and his mother, Kiyoko. Ryan continues to be Sparkles' #1 fan.

Firefighter Dayna Hilton

Judi Whitlow and Linda Hurley from the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation along with Firefighter Dayna Hilton.

Siren the Fire Safety Dog

Siren the Fire Safety Dog

Thank you to Tim O'Dowd for the wonderful pictures.

Firefighter Dayna, Tango and Siren on Fire Engineering Talk Radio August 4th!

Firefighter Dayna, Tango and Siren on Fire Engineering Talk Radio August 4th

Join Dayna, Tango and Siren live on Fireengineering.com Radio to learn all the latest about the adventures of the fire safety dogs and about Sparkles' Kids Zone, only on firelife.com! 7:30 ET

Today is Pet Fire Safety Day!

Siren the Fire Safety Dog wants to remind you that Pet Fire Safety Day is today! This nationwide awareness day educates pet owners about potential risks when pets are left home alone and provides them with proven prevention measures to ensure their safety.

According to a recent AKC study, 88 percent of pet owners consider their pets to be valued family members so it makes sense to include them in fire prevention plans and rescue alerts should a house fire strike. If you love your furfriend, not only celebrate National Pet Fire Safety Day today, celebrate fire safety year around. If you do, you'll help keep your pet safe!

Here are just a few tips from the AKC website. We especially like the one about keeping pets near entrances. That is a great idea!

• Pet Proof the Home - Take a walk around your home and look for areas where pets might start fires inadvertently, such as the stove knobs, loose wires and other potential hazards.
• Secure Young Pets - Especially with young puppies, keep them confined away from potential fire-starting hazards when you are away from home.
• Keep Pets Near Entrances – When leaving pets home alone, keep them in areas or rooms near entrances where firefighters can easily find them.
• Working Smoke Alarms - Be sure to test the batteries on your smoke alarm once a month and change the batteries two times a year. First Alert has a great selection of smoke alarms to help keep you and your pet safe!
  

You can find more tips HERE. Be sure to check it out!

Sparkles' Memorial Floral Arrangement by Mike Koch

Mike Koch (from Floral Creations By Mike Koch) just completed the floral arrangement for Sparkles' memorial service. According to Mike, the floral design took 33 hours and 1500 silk rose petals. Mike pulled an all-nighter last night to finish this in time for our trip to Sparkles' memorial service on Wednesday. Thank you Mike, from the bottom of our hearts, for donating your time and talents for Sparkles and her memorial service.

For more information on Sparkles and her memorial service, please visit http://www.sparklesthefiresafetydog.com/sparklesmemorialpathway.html. To watch the live stream of Sparkles' memorial service, visit http://www.sparklesthefiresafetydog.com/sparklesmemorialservice.html.

To learn more about Mike and his work, visit https://www.facebook.com/sirenthefiresafetydog?ref=ts#!/pages/Floral-Creations-By-Mike-Koch/122902027744466

Firefighter Dayna, Tango and Siren on Fire Engineering Talk Radio June 9th!

Join Dayna, Tango and Siren live on Fireengineering.com Radio, June 9th, to learn all the latest adventures of the fire safety dogs and more about Sparkles' Kids Zone, only on firelife.com! 7:45 ET

Meet our sponsor, First Alert!

It's official! First Alert has been supporting our fire safety efforts since 2006. We are excited that they are the official sponsor of our program! If you look on Sparkles' blog, you will notice that we now have First Alert's logo on the page! Thank you to First Alert for sponsoring our fire safety efforts and for helping us keep children and their caregivers fire safe.

Surf Dog Ricochet and Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog Raise over $5,000 for Target's Bunker

Our latest press release!

SURF DOG RICOCHET & SPARKLES THE FIRE SAFETY DOG RAISE $5074 FOR TARGET THE HERO DOG EUTHANIZED AFTER SAVING LIVES IN AFGHANISTAN

SAN DIEGO, CA, January 31, 2011… More than $5000 has been raised for Target's Bunker in a fundraiser that came out of USA Today's Most Heroic dog of 2010. Surf Dog Ricochet, the SURFice dog, and Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog were among the five nominees, along with Target, the Afghanistan dog who saved many soldiers lives, only to lose hers to an erroneous euthanization. Ricochet & Sparkles turned their votes into voices for Target, and began raising funds and awareness for her.On January 7th, Ricochet and Sparkles asked their supporters to turn their votes into voices during USA Today's Most Heroic Dog of 2010. In addition, they started a fundraiser to help Target's Bunker, an organization founded by Target's family. Donations came in from all over the country. Thanks to their generous donors, $5074 has been raised.


Target saved the lives of many soldiers in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber walked into a Border Patrol compound. Target, along with two other stray dogs, attacked the bomber. Despite the bombing... she survived. SGT Terry Young adopted Target, and brought her back to live with him in Arizona. One Friday afternoon, Target got out of the yard, and ended up in a shelter. Tragically, by Monday morning, she was erroneously euthanized. Target's Bunker has been formed with the hope of keeping another tragedy like Target's from happening ever again.

As this fundraiser comes to a close, a check for $5074 will be presented to SGT Terry Young in the name of Target's Bunker. Since Target's Bunker is in it's infancy stages of development, both Ricochet and Sparkles will continue their support of Target's Bunker through their individual non profit organizations. They encourage you to make tax deductible donations through either of their pages:

Puppy Prodigies/Surf Dog Ricochet, a 501(c)3 non profit organization, "A Tidal Wave for Target's Bunker" Fundraiser

Ricochet and Sparkles believe thousands and thousands of dollars can be raised for hero dog, Target, and ask folks around the world to join their quest by making a donation, and/or help raise awareness by getting the word out about their initiatives... which will ultimately save lives.
For more information, contact Judy Fridono/SurfDog Ricochet at pawinspired@aol.com, 707-228-0679 or Dayna Hilton/Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog at sparkles@sparklesthefiresafetydog.com, 479-979-7328 http://www.sparklesthefiresafetydog.com

Wordless Wednesday

I can't wait to be a fire safety dog, just like you, Tango! Love, Siren

Siren is in training to become a fire safety dog, just like Sparkles and Tango. It won't be long before he is wearing his own red vest!

Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, along with fellow "Most Heroic Dog of 2010" nominee, Surf Dog Ricochet, are mentioned on the USA Today website today

Target
USA Today's 2010 "Most Heroic Dog in 2010"

Target

Surf Dog Richochet with a signed check from her and Sparkles for Target's Bunker.

Today we are honored that Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, along with fellow "Most Heroic Dog of 2010" nominee, Surf Dog Ricochet, are mentioned on the USA Today website today and we wanted to share the link. Together, Sparkles and Richochet helped change the "vote to voices" to help carry on the work of Target, who saved the lives of U.S. Soldiers in Aghanistan.

Thank you to USA Today's Janice Lloyd for the beautiful article that she wrote about this whole experience and thank you to Judy and Ricochet for partnering on such an amazing project!

It's not too late to donate! To read more about the campaign to help Target's Bunker, visit HERE on Surf Dog Ricochet's site.

Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog Nominated as Most Heroic Dog of 2010 by USA Today

Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, rescued from a home with 62 other dogs and who helped save the lives of 7 children and 2 adults from fire with her fire safety efforts, has been nominated for USA Today's Most Heroic Dog of 2010.

Sparkles is honored to share this nomination with four other amazing dogs, including Target, who was an amazing heroic dog.

Five year old Angelica shared this story with me, "Firefighter Dayna~ I was in bed under the 'cobers' and the smoke came. I crawled out of bed and crawled low, just like Sparkles [the Fire Safety Dog] showed me to. I said, 'C'mon daddy, you have to get on the floor and crawl low like Sparkles.'"

By this time, her dad was disoriented because he had been standing in the smoke filled room. Thankfully, he was able to follow Angelica out of the house. The firefighters later shared with me that Angelica's father followed her out of the home and they said that as soon as he reached the door, the firefighters scooped him up and took him to the hospital (where he spent 7 days~ 4 in ICU). Immediately after they carried him away from the front door, the firefighters stated that the home flashed over (a "flashover" is where the home totally becomes engulfed in flames).

You may watch a video of the story of Sparkles' life saving efforts and hear more about this incredible story HERE.

Although Sparkles recently passed away, her passion for helping keep children fire safe will live on. Thank you to USA Today for nominating Sparkles and for helping raise awareness of the importance of fire safety.

Painting Arrives from Artist Carol Chretien

The beautiful oil painting, "Siren's Call to Service," by artist Carol Chretien, arrived in Arkansas. We loved the photos of the painting that we had seen, but when we saw the painting in person, it is breath-taking!

Tango checking out the package from Carol. Well, let's open it, Mom!

Siren likes surprises! Tango and Siren

Siren loves his new portrait! Not only did we like the front, we liked the back as well! Very thoughtful!



Carol wrote a beautiful post on her blog, describing what inspired her to make this painting.

Thanks to the thoughtfulness of Carol, the fire safety dogs and I will have yet another way to help carry on the work of Sparkles through the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation. The painting will help us raise funds for the foundation, and will, in turn, help the foundation provide low or no cost fire safety materials to children, fire departments, schools and other organizations.

Carol donated the painting to the fire safety dogs and myself. Prints of the painting as well as other items will be available with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the foundation.

Below are some pictures of the painting's progress.


October 28th

November 3rd

November 7th
November 15

Thank you so much, Carol for your thoughtfulness and for helping us keep children and their caregivers fire safe!

New Sparkles Kids Zone Column on firelife.com!

Sparkles' new column is out on her Kids Zone page on the Firelife.com site!

Click on the picture to see her column and even download a free coloring page!

Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog Ringtone now Available for iPhone Users

Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog ringtone by Michael Post and Roger Haak now available for iPhone users. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation.

Order directly on your iPhone.

Kids love it!

Meet my new little brother, live on the web!

The time is almost here! Meet my new little brother, the newest fire safety dog, as we welcome him to our fire safety family. Be the first to learn his name during this event!


I am one excited big sister! I can't wait to teach him everything that he needs to know about being a fire safety dog!

New fire safety puppy coming soon!

Firefighter Dayna, Tango and I are so excited that we will have a new edition to our family and fire safety team! It will be so much fun having a little brother!

My new little brother is five and a half weeks old and will spend another two and a half weeks with his mom and littermates. Until then, we are getting ready for his big arrival!

We will be announcing his name very soon!