Trapped Dog Saved by Fire Rescue

 
 
A good sumaritan called Wichita Fire Rescue saying that a car was submerged in water with people trapped inside not realizing that what they were witnessing was 2 men trying to rescue a trapped dog. Fire rescue arrived on the scene to find that there was no car, and no people to rescue. There was however a dog trapped under an underpass in an air pocket after water rose quickly sealing off its only means of escape. Fire Rescue didn’t care; they did not hesitate. Two of team members got into the water, and stayed there for close to an hour, probing, sticking their hands under water along where Taz the dog had last been seen. Taz is scared of loud noises and so he and his owner had taken cover under an overpass when it started to rain during their walk. It started to lightening and thunder and Taz began to freak out. One thing led to another and Taz jumped in the little creek next to the sidewalk and then another loud bang and he was off trying to hide under the concrete when he got trapped.
 
After quite a while of searching and not knowing where or if they would find the dog still in the same area Fire Rescue was ready to admit defeat: Taz the dog had disappeared, possibly to never be found alive.They even went over to the gathering news outlets watching and waiting to tell them the search was over they could not find the dog to know where to dig him out from. But then a bystander saw what looked like a puff of smoke, coming out of a hole in the concrete near where Taz disappeared on the ledge under the sidewalk. Fire Rescue immediately went over to investigate and sure enough they heard breathing and then warm dog breath as they leaned in closer to the little hole.
 
The news conference of Wells and firefighters and media reporters went running over. The Fire Rescue crew members with the scuba gear and the wet suits, jumped back in the water.
 
Taz’s owner John Huy, who’d been crying thinking his dog was gone and would never see him again, jumped down beside the hole. Firefighters fired up the concrete saws. Huy warned them about how Taz gets really scared around loud noises and will run away from them but there was no choice the only way to get Taz the dog out was to use the heavy duty concrete power saws. So they began to cut when they had enough of a hole one of the scuba guys stuck a hand in to try to help Taz out. But Taz was petrified by now and was very upset and bit the hand of the Fire Rescue member that tried to help him. Eventually Taz calmed down seeing the hole and the friendly faces and his owner and so the crew was able to pull him out of the concrete.

Captain Wells acknowledged that eight fire trucks, plus police directing traffic, plus the use of all that equipment, merely to rescue a dog, was indeed a significant effort. “But we understand that pets are very, very important to people’s lives,” he said. “We’re glad to be here.”

 
Because Taz the dog did bit his rescuer there will be an investigation into whether he was up to date on his vaccinations at the time of his rescue but as long as he was there probably will not be any penalty for the bite considering the situation.