SUPERIOR, Colo. (KDVR) — More than a thousand pets died during the Marshall Fire, which motivated one neighbor to create a new pet rescue app.

“It became very clear that neighbors who are home when disaster strike are your best hope for having your pets rescued,” said David Crawford, founder of the nonprofit Animal Help Now.

Crawford started working on the app a week after the fire hit his neighborhood and now it’s almost ready to launch.

“It’s one of those things where nobody’s done it. I guess we’re going to have to do it,” Crawford said.

The app is called Pet Help and Rescue, or PHAR, and is designed to quickly connect neighbors during a natural disaster, like a fire.

“With an estimated one thousand animals having lost their lives that day when a lot of them could’ve been saved if we’d been better coordinated if we’d had a tool,” Crawford said.

When you download the app, you create a profile for each of your pets. The profile will include critical information like where they might be hiding and where their medicine is located. You also designate emergency contacts.

These are neighbors you coordinate with ahead of time. If you’re not home when a disaster strikes, you can send them an alert. It will quickly provide all the information they need, including how to get into your home.

“When the moment comes, you need to communicate critical info including how to get into your home. You press a couple buttons and its done,” Crawford said.

Crawford and a team of volunteers have been working on the app for months. He says volunteers have been putting in about 200 hours a month for the past year to get the app up and running.

“This makes it a dedicated channel where we can focus on the most important thing, which is saving our pets’ lives,” Crawford said.

The app is expected to be ready for download by the end of March.