I stand by my original post. Both at the same time. If that were not possible, it would depend on the situation, but a person is NOT always capable of saving him/herself in a fire, so no one should assume the person would be okay and the pet wouldn;t. Cats have survived devastating fires by hiding in the fireplace, for instance, but no human would fit there, nor would the air quality be good enough for a person.

It would depend, but given say, an infant and a small cat/dog, one under each arm. A dog that trusted me, I'd grab the person and say "c'mon boy, follow me, come on." In fact, if the smoke was bad, we humans are better off crawling toward the door if we can, and what dog would not want to participate in that? Every dog I know would be following right next to the crawling humans saying "What is dis game? Why you onna floor? We goin' dis way?"

If it was a "dash in and dash out" situation, and the human was unconscious, and I could for some reason only rescue one each time, I'd put a moist cloth over the mouth of human and animal to filter the smoke somewhat, rescue the human first, animal next, but again - where are my fellow firefighters?

There are many firemen - volunteer and paid - on my family tree, and my next-door neighbor is a retired fireman. I have the utmost of respect for those who put their own lives on the line every day, and who make these agonizing decisions in a heartbeat as a matter of course.

We should all pray we are never in such a situation, and the next time we each meet a firefighter, we should say "Thank you" because most of us never have to even think about these things, the firefighters do.