Firefighters rescued a dog from a drainpipe in Addington Hills on Shirley Hills Road near Croydon.
The owners were walking their two dogs, Woodey and Quincey, who are both eight years old, in a park when they lost sight of them. The dogs fell into the pipe on a wooded hillside. Quincey managed to get free and started barking to alert his owners that Woodey was stuck.
The Brigade was called by Woodey’s worried owner, Lesley. She said: “The noise and echo coming from inside the pipe made it sound like Woodey was having trouble breathing and so I called 999.”
Addington Station Officer Ray Foster arrived on scene and saw the dog had fallen deep into the pipe and used a snake-eye camera to identify exactly where the canine was located. Station Officer Foster said: “We decided to break the pipe, our main priority was to not scare the dog and to make sure he was absolutely safe.”
Lesley’s son arrived at the incident and decided to use a Frankfurter sausage to entice Woodey out of the pipe once it had been broken. The sound from the sledgehammer and the smell of sausage helped Woodey to scamper back up the pipe to freedom. Firefighters were then able to grab Woodey and completed the rescue.
Lesley said: “The firefighters were brilliant and did a great job, we were so relieved!”
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “Firefighters love animals too and we’re ready, willing and able to assist distressed or injured animals – the last thing we want is for people to put themselves at risk rescuing an animal themselves – but we do encourage people to call the RSPCA in the first instance and we will assist if our specialist equipment is required, as in this case.”
Crews from Woodside and Croydon fire stations were in attendance. The Brigade was called at 1500 and the incident was over by 1637.
