Jesús Aranda served the city for 11 years. He served in various positions and fields.
Finally, some time ago, he became an animal control inspector.
He was an inexperienced beginner, but the main thing about him was his love of animals.
When he arrived for a routine check at one of the shelters and saw that the building was on fire, he could not stay away.
He thought of all the cats trapped in the building and all the dangers they faced.
Carbon monoxide poisoning; burns and dehydration from hot stainless steel cells.
Aranda didn’t hesitate. He opened the door and went inside.
He walked through a smoky room to the place where the cats were kept and began opening the cells one by one.
The ones who could have run ran away.
Those who couldn’t walk on their own, Aranda carried them outside.
He saved the lives of 45 tailed ones.
The heat burned his skin, the smoke made it difficult to breathe and filled the eyes with tears, but the inspector returned to save those who remained.
Finally, firefighters arrived and put out the fire.
They gave first aid to the exhausted inspector, who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, and then he was sent to the hospital.
Fortunately, he got off relatively lightly, and in a couple of hours he could already return home – but he took a big risk.
The inspector is sure that it was worth it because thanks to him there were casualties.
After 10 days, the city council presented the man with a diploma and an award and thanked him for the saved lives.
However, in his own eyes, Aranda did nothing special: after all, he could not just stand and wait for the firemen to arrive.
“God knows what could have happened to those cats,” he says. “I had to be a different person not to try to save them.”