'Really Grateful': Firefighters Rescue Dog Swept Away by Floodwaters, Found in Storm Drain
Emilie Brill of San Bernardino, California, was walking her dog Seamus on Monday when he embarked on quite the adventure.
Somehow or another — sources are not revealing if the dog was leashed or not — the 1-year-old Australian shepherd found his way off the path and into the nearby floodwaters.
“He got away from me, and he just went down into this drainage,” Brill told KABC-TV. “The water was going so fast, I think all it took was one paw in that water, and he was gone.”
Seamus was dragged along and out of sight by the powerful current while Brill watched helplessly. She called 911 and explained what had happened.
Around a mile down from where Seamus got loose, an employee at an RV business spotted the poor pup and tracked him to an access tube that came off the river. San Bernardino County Fire was contacted, and they were able to rescue the dog.
“Yesterday San Bernardino crews were dispatched to a public service call for a dog lost in a storm drain,” they posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
“Firefighters arrived in the area working to locate the dog in the storm drain. While canvassing the area ME231 was flagged down by an employee at a RV facility on East Redlands Blvd.
“The employee had heard a dog barking in the nearby channel & witnessed the dog floating down the channel. He followed Seamus and observed the dog had found a way out of the water into an access tube nearby.
“Firefighters were flagged down & found Seamus in the tube staring back at them. He traveled nearly a mile from when he entered the storm drain. He miraculously made it out of the fast moving water & was stuck at the bottom of the tube.
“Firefighters quickly made access to the dog, bringing him up the ladder to safety. After assessing the dog he seemed uninjured & in good spirits.”
But there was another piece of the puzzle that helped them locate the dog’s position and get him home again: Seamus had been outfitted with an Apple AirTag along with the normal ID Tag.
“Seamus was equipped with both Apple AirTag & a conventional ID Tag which aided rescuers and owners in tracking the pup and reuniting them,” the post continued.
Firefighters took the dog to the fire engine, where they dried him off and took some photos before reuniting him with Brill.
“While we would have loved to make Seamus a fire station pup, glad we could reunite the dog back with his owners,” the post concluded.
Brill was ecstatic that Seamus made it home and surprised by the lengths to which the fire department went to return her pup.
“I was just blown away by, by that level of response from our emergency services,” she said. “And just really grateful.”
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