The Arizona Burn Foundation (ABF) is expanding its long‑running smoke alarm program through a new partnership with Rescue Retriever, a company that designs strobe‑based devices to help firefighters locate pets during emergencies.
Bretta Nelson, Arizona Burn Foundation Director of Marketing, and Fire Captain Ryan Tussing, Co-founder of Rescue Retriever, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the collaboration.
The partnership adds pet smoke alarms to ABF’s home safety offerings, aiming to keep families out of danger while improving rescue outcomes for animals. Rescue Retriever’s paw‑shaped device flashes a silent strobe when smoke is detected, guiding firefighters toward pets in their usual hiding or sleeping spots.
“You used to see back in the days of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters where people will not leave their pets behind,” Nelson said. “People are carrying their little dogs with them, and they might be elderly too. We need to make sure that these residents are getting themselves out of their homes and not staying back with their pets.”
Tussing explained how 22 years of fire service experience led to founding Rescue Retriever with his twin brother.
“I’ve carried out too many pets that didn’t make it because we didn’t find them fast enough,” Tussing said. “And it’s not that firefighters are bad at it; we’re rescuing pets all the time. It’s a timing thing. When we get there, there’s a gap where we don’t know the family has a pet, how many and where they hide, because usually pets will hide.”
