Six puppies saved from suspected fentanyl overdose in Gold Bar
Jan 12, 2026, 5:25 PM | Updated: 5:51 pm
Six puppies were saved from a suspected fentanyl overdose in Gold Bar on Sunday by Sky Valley Fire (SVF) crews.
Early Sunday morning, individuals brought three unresponsive 10-week-old puppies in critical condition to Station 54, SVF announced.
Firefighters concluded that the puppies were all suffering from the same symptoms, all experiencing respiratory issues, and noted “the cause had to be environmental poisoning of some kind.”
Crews performed life-saving procedures on the puppies, including administering CPR, providing oxygen therapy, and administering Naloxone, informally known as Narcan.
“Knowing that fentanyl is one of the major causes of poisoning, when introduced in the air as a powder, it was our firefighters’ best guess that the puppies had experienced a fentanyl [overdose],” SVF stated.
The fire officer in charge called for the sheriff’s office to respond to the scene while SVF worked to revive the puppies.
“They took about three rounds of Narcan through their nasal passages,” Sky Valley Fire Chief Brandon Vargas said on “The Jake and Spike Show.” “A couple of them got injections of Narcan to keep them awake and moving around and alive.”
All three puppies responded to the treatment and were successfully resuscitated.
“We started giving Narcan, started giving oxygen, and did CPR on one of the dogs for about a minute or two, and they all started to wake up,” Vargas added.
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Shortly after the first three puppies were revived, sheriff’s deputies located the puppy owners at their home and found three additional puppies that were extremely sick.
The next three puppies were immediately transported to Station 54, where firefighters and EMTs provided additional life-saving efforts. All six puppies were then taken to an urgent care veterinary clinic.
“Three ten-week-old puppies that were not responsive, barely breathing,” Vargas said. “Maybe like two or three times a minute.”
SVF noted that it had been informed that all six puppies are recovering.
“A big thank you to our firefighter-EMTs, our Sheriff’s deputies, and the 24-hour urgent care veterinary clinic. It is our hope that the puppies fully recover and find loving forever homes!” SVF stated.
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