Langford firefighters weren’t out rescuing cats from trees this week – they were rescuing a dog from a ravine.
While on the chase for a rolling ball, a medium-sized dog ended up at the bottom of a ravine in Gowlland Tod Provincial Park in Highlands on Tuesday. The owner of dog the called firefighters for assistance when the dog was unable to get out of the area.
“A dog found his way down an embankment and couldn’t find his way back up,” said Langford assistant fire chief Geoff Spriggs. “The safest way was for one of our guys to go down and pick him up.”
The firefighters used a high angle rope rescue technique to safety reunite the dog with its owner. It took about two hours to bring the animal out of the 150-foot deep ravine near the McKenzie Bight Trail. It was unharmed and in good spirits.
“We didn’t rush it and used it as a training scenario,” Spriggs said. “This is the first time ever we did a high angle rescue on a dog.”
The Highlands Volunteer Fire Department also attended the call, but did not have the equipment to perform the rescue.