Firefighters in Peterborough, Ont., are being hailed as heroes after saving a canine which fell by way of the thin ice on the Trent Canal late final week.
Doug Unsworth says he and his canine Chase on Friday had been on their ordinary walk alongside a path simply off Thompson Bay within the canal, close to their north-end home.
But Unsworth says a Canada goose all of a sudden caught his unleashed canine companion’s consideration, prompting the black Labrador retriever to sprint out onto the canal’s skinny ice — after which all of a sudden into the icy water.
“All of a sudden he chased — true to his name — chased after a Canada goose and he got about 70 feet from shore,” mentioned Unsworth. ” I referred to as him to return again and he simply went proper by way of as quickly as he stopped.”
Unsworth says a neighbour named Laura noticed the commotion and instantly referred to as 911.
“(The) ice wasn’t good. I didn’t dare go after him and I didn’t know what to do,” he mentioned. “I stood there completely useless not being able to do anything. Fortunately right where we are standing was a lady named Laura… who called 911.”
Peterborough Fire Services responded to the emergency name and launched an inflatable rescue raft. However, chief coaching officer Dave Gillespie notes firefighters had their very own challenges in reaching Chase.
Gillespie captured a few of his colleagues’ recue efforts on video.
“As they worked their way out at a certain point, they couldn’t get through the ice, so they had to hop off the boat and crush the ice to finally get to the dog,” he mentioned. “… they were pulled in by the line by the crew up on shore. And that is our standard rescue protocol for those situations.”
The canine was delivered to shore safely — chilled, however in any other case unscathed, mentioned Unsworth.
“Those rescue guys are heroes as far as I’m concerned,” he mentioned.
Gillespie says the incident is a reminder to residents and pet house owners to be cognizant of ice situations on all our bodies of water, particularly given the milder situations to date this winter in Ontario.
“Ice is slow forming so that means that the two inches of snap freeze is really an inch and a half here; an inch here, half an inch there, and it’s three inches somewhere else,” he mentioned. “So that slow-forming means it has a number of air in it which it means (the ice) is fairly delicate.
“Being inconsistent and being soft means it’s unsafe to go out on any ice.”
Gillespie says Unsworth made the fitting determination to not enterprise onto the ice. Unsworth says he’s now sharing the expertise with different canine house owners.
“I have run into people who say they are leashing their dogs around the water and walking other trails away from the water,” he mentioned. “So yes, the message is getting out.”
— with recordsdata from Tricia Mason/Global News Peterborough
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