A bit of a story that happened a few months ago, before I ask my question with more detail:
I used to have a 2-month old kitten which me and my mum received from a school friend of mine (her older cat wasn't getting on with the kitten) sometime ago. We used to have cats long before I turned 10, but never really had to go through traumatizing experiences because the house back then was safe. So I moved to England, and moved into a new house which needed some maintenance. We were prepared to welcome in our new cat, trying to minimize the risks of our new kitten getting hurt as much as possible. After like 5 weeks of our kitten settling in, on an ordinary day, I came back home from work experience. After talking for a few minutes with my mum in the kitchen, she went to prepare the laundry for the washing machine. I went upstairs, thinking that my kitten would be playing with toys in my room. We couldn't see her for over 10 minutes which was worrying, seeing that she has a habit of stalking us. We looked into every corner, deeply worried, and then I looked at the washing machine glass door, only to notice that the kitten was spinning inside. I cried instantly, getting my mum over to the kitchen. We had no way of going into the washing machine unless we waited for the water to get sucked out. When we finally got her out, she was shaking and her belly was full of water (lungs were filled with washing chemicals as well). This was the first time we came across such a situation and we didn't know what to do. We held her upside down hoping to get some water out of her, but we didn't know whether this was painful for her. She had let go off her feces which was a sign her body was giving up. Pink liquid was coming out of her eyes, but she was still breathing (struggling, for that matter). I searched the closest vet on my phone and called several times to make sure I know where I am going. The closest vet was down the street I live at, but it was a considerably long distance. I am not especially not good at running, and my mum is too old to run, so I ran with the transporter and phone in my hands panicking like crazy. My mum said she'd follow me shortly. The kitten was taken in by the vet and they checked her situation. When my mum came, the vet announced that she had really low chances because of the water and chemicals in her lungs. The vet inserted drugs as a final method, and told us to go home instead of worrying and waiting. One hour after we got home, we were informed that she stopped breathing.
Now, ever since then, we couldn't forgive ourselves for our carelessness, my mum's friend managed to convince us that the pain and emptiness in the house can be defeated most easily through adopting two cats. And so we adopted two cats after a few days. My mum was hard to convince since she knew she was responsible, but anyway.
We tried really hard up until now to train them to not walk around dangerous things, such as the washing machine or the opening entrance door which is going fine at the moment. (We live near the main road with open staircase)
But, in a case this misfortune happens again, what can we do? Be it if one of the cats is stuck in the machine and we want to get her out as quick as possible... Or when we pull her out and try to get the water out of her lungs?
I'm looking forward to any advice and tips. Thanks in advance.