LOS ANGELES — Firefighters who spent 20 minutes performing mouth-to-snout resuscitation on a dog they rescued from a burning apartment are being hailed as heroes. The dog’s owner, Crystal Lamirande, had just returned to her Santa Monica apartment when a neighbor yelled there was a fire. Lamirande frantically tried to save her dog, a 10-year-old Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu named Nalu, but the smoke was too thick, she said. That’s when firefighter Andrew Klein sprang into action, getting on all fours to search the apartment. “He was totally lifeless,” Klein said. “I picked him up and ran out of the apartment because time is key, especially with a small dog. ... Failure was not an option.”

Klein, a self-described dog lover with two at home, said he felt proud of the outcome. “He was essentially dead, so to see him kissing people and walking around wagging his tail was definitely a good feeling,” he said. “He’s very happy, and we’re very happy, too.”— AP