A pit bull named Jake, who was badly burned in a fire as a puppy, is now an honorary firefighter and mascot at the fire department that saved him. 
 
 Firefighter William Lindler of the Hanahan Fire Department in South Carolina told ABC News he rescued Jake from a "badly burning shed" outside a family's house in Charleston last April. Jake was only three weeks old at the time, he said. 
 
 "I literally found Jake in the last place you could see before the smoke became pitch black and was too dark to navigate through," Lindler said. "He wasn't doing too good, and I gave him mouth-to-snout breaths until we could get an oxygen mask for him." 
 
 Jake was taken to a local emergency veterinarian's office, where a vet warned Lindler that there was a chance that the pup might not survive, Lindler said. 
 
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 But little Jake "was a fighter," Lindler added. 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 The firefighter soon found out from the vet that Jake's original family couldn't afford the medical bills and that "they had abandoned him," he said. "So I adopted him!" 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 The pup was treated with antibiotics and morphine for over a month, Lindler said. He explained that the vet staff would "have to scrub dead skin off him everyday" and that Jake had to undergo laser skin therapy. 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 "All in all, it was about four months of recovery," he said. "Of course, even when he came home, we still had to continue putting special antibiotics and ointments, and his scars will always remain. We actually have to put sunscreen on him when we take him to the beach." 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 Once Jake was fully recovered, Lindler said he allowed the pup to accompany him to the station this past September. 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 "All the guys fell in love with him, and the ladies at town hall always have treats for him," he said. Lindler added that this past December, Hanahan's fire chief and mayor actually proclaimed Jake an honorary firefighter and swore him in as the official mascot for the fire department. 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 Lindler said he hopes to soon be able to train Jake to become an arson detection dog. 
 
 "He loves sniffing and snooping around when I play with him and hide his toys," he said. "So I figured, hey, he might be a good fit for being a detection dog." 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 The firefighter said he now hopes that Jake's story will also "change people's perception of pit bulls." He said that Jake "is actually a very loving and gentle dog who's never met anyone he didn't like." 
 
 William Lindler 
 
 The pup will soon be celebrating his first birthday. 
 
 "Oh yeah, we'll have a puppy birthday party complete with a puppy birthday cake for sure," Lindler said. 

 This South Carolina fire department recently made a one-year-old pup into an honorary firefighter after they rescued him from a devastating fire months before. 
 
 Bill Lindler told InsideEdition.com that on the day of his neighbor's fire, he knew there was a 3-week-old pitbull still in the garage. 
 
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 "I felt helpless," Lindler said to InsideEdition.com. Lindler is a firefighter himself, and while the entire family had escaped unharmed, he knew there was nothing he could do for the puppy until the fire department arrived. 
 
 Ten minutes later, the fire department finally arrived to the scene. Lindler said he found little Jake in a corner after having crawled out from under the collapsed ceiling. 
 
 The pup needed mouth-to-mouth for the smoke inhalation. He also had burns over 75 percent of his body, including his paws, and was given morphine for the first 6 weeks following the fire. 
 
 "Most humans would have died in those conditions," Lindler said. 
 
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 Jake was brought to the vet, but his neighbors were not able to afford Jake's medical bills. The vet then deemed him abandonned, which is when Lindler decided he would step in. 
 
 Lindler adopted the little pup, and began to nurse him back to health. Once Jake was off medication, Lindler began bringing him to the fire station during his shifts. 
 
 "Everyone there fell in love with him," Lindler said to IE.com. 
 
 After Jake's spontaneous visits to the fire department became more regular, the Chief of Halahan Fire Department decided it would be appropriate to officially welcome Jake as a member of the team. 
 
 Jake was soon sworn in as an honorary member of the fire department, and a mascot of the team. He is also the first dog in the department to hold the title. 
 
 Jake's body is still scarred from the fire, but Lindler said that it was indication that he would be a perfect fit: “Before they even made him a firefighter, that was his firefighter badge.” 
 
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 Firefighters at the department now bring their four-legged team member on fire prevention presentations at local schools. 
 
 "He was burned and survived," Lindler said. "I think it gets them to understand the importance of fire safety better." 
 
 In the future, the Halahan Fire Department plans to train Jake to be an accelerant detection dog, where he will learn to recognize certain scents that indicate whether an arson has occurred. 
 
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– Black smoke was filling a burning shed in Charleston, SC, last June when firefighter William Lindler spotted a badly burned puppy within. Less than a year later, that puppy is now an honorary firefighter and the official mascot of the Hanahan Fire Department. After the 3-week-old pit bull, Jake, was given "mouth-to-snout breaths," the vet said he had burns over 75% of his body and needed laser skin therapy, antibiotics, and morphine, which his family couldn't afford, per ABC News and Inside Edition. So Lindler adopted him. Jake now has a full life ahead of him: Lindler hopes to train Jake as an arson detection dog to prevent tragedies like the one he survived.