Retired firefighter and paramedic Jeff Owens and Kalli, a 7-year-old black labrador retriever, demonstrate how to check the temperature of doorknobs to see if fire may be outside a room during the Fire Safety with Kasey program at the Galveston Public Library in Galveston on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Photo by Jonah Hinebaugh | Pharos-Tribune
Retired firefighter and paramedic Jeff Owens and Kalli, a 7-year-old black labrador retriever, demonstrate how to check the temperature of doorknobs to see if fire may be outside a room during the Fire Safety with Kasey program at the Galveston Public Library in Galveston on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Photo by Jonah Hinebaugh | Pharos-Tribune
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Jeff Owen’s black labs Kalli and Carmel have four jobs. First, they serve as his family’s companions and pets.

“They like to do things like any other dog,” Owens said. “They like to run and play ball. On a bright sunny day, you know how the sun comes shining through the window and it makes a big warm spot on the carpet? They like to find that warm spot and take naps.”

Kalli and Karmel are working dogs, though, so they do not get to nap as much as most pets. Their remaining three jobs are what set the two dogs apart from most other canines in the country.

“We spend most of our days like we are today: teaching fire and life safety,” Owens told parents and kids gathered at the Galveston Public Library on Thursday afternoon.

Kalli and Karmel’s other jobs include working as search and rescue dogs, working as therapy dogs at burn camps, and knowing fire and safety skills so they can teach them to children around the country.

Owens is a retired firefighter and paramedic from Indianapolis. He used to visit his son’s class to discuss fire safety with the children, but he had no idea that would lead to him developing his own education service, The Kasey Program.

“It was by accident,” he said. “My wife never wanted to have a dog, which, considering what I do now, makes that a funny statement. We lost our nephew to a brain tumor when he was six years old. His dog was getting ready to have a litter of pups, and my wife wanted one of those pups. That was the original Kasey.”

When preparing to discuss fire safety with his son’s kindergarten class, Owens realized that Kasey knew how to sit, lie down and roll over. It dawned on him that he could use Kasey’s tricks to demonstrate how to stop, drop and roll, and he became determined to share his knowledge and his dog with a wider audience.

“It exploded,” Owens said. “In the first three years we went from the idea of the program to teaching 400,000 kids a year. We were trying to keep up and still are. Now we travel coast to coast and all over the country.”

Over the past 30 years, seven different dogs have played the role of Kasey. Owens always chooses female black labs, just like the original Kasey. Kalli is the most recent dog to fill the role. After the dogs retire, they spend the remainder of their lives with Owen’s family.

“When I call (Kalli) Kasey and put her vest on, she knows it’s time to work,” Owens said.

Owens, Kalli and Karmel visited the Galveston and Logansport libraries on Thursday to share their knowledge with the community.

“When you go to sleep, which part of your body goes to sleep first?” Owens asked the crowd.

A young boy sitting in the audience excitedly shouted, “Your nose!”

Owens told the boy he was right and explained that people cannot smell smoke while asleep. He recommends that people sleep with their bedroom doors closed to protect them against smoke inhalation.

Kalli and Karmel demonstrated how to stop, drop and roll by sitting on their hind legs, laying on their backs, and finally rolling across the library floor. They also showed their audience how to check the temperature of a doorknob by placing their paws upon Owen’s hand. If Owen said the doorknob was cool to the touch, they walked through the blue and white striped hula hoop that represented their bedroom door.

Owens also emphasized the importance of finding at least two exits in each room. When the pretend doorknob felt hot to the touch, Owens lifted the hula hoop door to turn it into a window. The dogs jumped through the hoop to demonstrate climbing out to safety.

The program also detailed finding a meeting spot outside the home and counting noses to check whether everyone made it out. Owens emphasized the importance of leaving the building immediately and never re-entering until the fire is completely extinguished.

If you are unable to leave the building, Owens told his audience, never hide under a bed or in a closet. He said people who are unable to escape should get low to the ground and make noise so firefighters can find them quickly.

Jennifer Smith and her son, Nash Robinson, visited the Galveston Public Library to participate in The Kasey Program after she read about it on a flyer.

“It’s really nice,” she said. “It teaches them the basic, most important things that they need to know.”

Robinson learned that smoke rises instead of falling toward the ground. He said he will remember to get low to the ground to breathe if he is ever in a situation where there is heavy smoke.

One of Robinson’s favorite parts of the program was when the dogs demonstrated what to do if you catch on fire.

“My favorite part was probably the stop, drop and roll,” he said. “That was my favorite part, them getting close to people.”

He also enjoyed the end of the program when Owens instructed when and how to safety pet strange dogs — only with their owner’s permission — and let everyone gently pet Kalli and Karmel.

“Their ears were really soft,” Robinson said.

Owens knows that the information he teaches is important, and he knows using the dogs to demonstrate helps things stick in kid’s minds. His main goal is to keep people safe.

“I had a person ask me the other day, ‘Why do you continue to go to burn camp?’” he said. “I responded, ‘Because it’s a great reminder to me of why I do this.’ That’s the other side of it. I want to work harder when I see those kids so that doesn’t happen again.”

The Kasey Program is completely free to communities, and Owen encourages anyone interested in learning more to reach out to him. He said one of the most rewarding parts of his job is entering schools and hearing kids call the dogs by name because they remember them from last year’s program.

“We love doing what we’re doing,” Owens said. “It’s our passion.”
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