Like Firefighter Dad, Pushing Down with Both Paws... 'CPR Dog' Hits 1.8 Million Views

A dog that discovers someone collapsed places its front paws on the person's chest and repeatedly begins compression.

Every time it puts both paws together and presses down firmly, the person's torso bounces up and down.

The star of the video capturing this scene is three-year-old 'Cindy', the pet dog of Fire Inspector Shin, who works at the 119 General Dispatch Center of the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters.

According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters the day before (August 29), a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) safety education video starring Cindy, titled "Make the Heart Beat Again," gained traction on the fire headquarters' official social media channels, accumulating about 1.8 million views.

Viewers who watched the video left comments such as, "I thought it was an artificial intelligence (AI) generated video," "A genius dog saves the world," "Thanks to the dog, I watched it all the way through," and "The content is so relatable that it would be great for children to learn."

The video depicts a scenario where Cindy discovers a cardiac arrest patient and demonstrates chest compression movements, along with response guidelines when a cardiac arrest patient occurs.

It also emphasized that the golden time for cardiac arrest is about 4 minutes, and that promptly performing CPR before medical staff arrive is crucial.

Inspector Shin, Cindy's owner, is responsible for receiving 119 emergency calls, issuing dispatch orders, and communicating via radio with the field.

Aside from his main job, out of a simple love for dogs, he began taking an interest in search and rescue dogs during his days off and continued related training activities.

In an interview, Inspector Shin said, "Fire safety publicity work is somewhat different from my main job, but I started making videos of Cindy with the thought of how I could somehow help the organization using my talents that I enjoy and do well."

He explained, "We started utilizing dogs in fire safety education about 10 years ago. When children visit the fire station, if a dog demonstrates the actions first, the children show interest and follow along."

This method involves the dog first demonstrating how to drop to the floor and roll when clothes catch fire or how to move with a lowered posture at a fire scene, prompting children to follow.

Cindy is a Jack Russell Terrier, a small breed of dog.

Inspector Shin explained that he adopted this breed considering that it is smaller than general rescue dogs like German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, or Retrievers, allowing it to approach children in a friendly manner.

Inspector Shin said, "Cindy has excellent training abilities, and she learns simple actions after two to three days of training."

He added, "She succeeds almost every time she is told to perform CPR actions, and just as a person's body moves when someone performs chest compressions properly, Cindy pushes down hard enough to make the person's torso move."

The promotional video "Faster," in which Cindy runs to a rescue subject and demonstrates CPR actions, recently won the grand prize in the video category at the "2026 Proactive Administration Support Challenge Contest" hosted by the Ministry of Personnel Management.

This video was produced to promote the "119 Pass" policy, which allows fire engines to pass through apartment complex main entrances without separate procedures so that firefighters can arrive quickly at the scene.

Employees of the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters who participated in the video production donated their entire prize money of 1 million won to Gyeonggi Fire's "Warm Companion 119," which supports neighbors in need such as fire victims.

Inspector Shin plans to utilize various actions Cindy has learned in fire safety education alongside the fire headquarters in the future, not just limited to CPR.

He said, "We are conceptualizing content where Cindy's actions demonstrate how to evacuate by covering the mouth and nose and lowering the body in the event of a fire, the dangers of inhaling smoke, and evacuation guidelines during an earthquake."

He added, "I hope that taking advantage of the attention Cindy has received, private search and rescue dog activities will be known to more people and that sufficient space for rescue dogs to train will be secured."

(Photo provided by Firefighter Shin Dong-gyun of the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.