A distressed call came in from a house in West Tamworth around 7:20pm on Wednesday 8 March.
A chihuahua-maltese terrier cross puppy had gone missing from its litter, and its owners could hear whimpering somewhere underground. The Local Rescue Coordinator requested dispatch of the Tamworth Special Operations Team (SOT) rescue paramedics, and Adam Ferris and Nicole Beacroft headed to the scene.
A puppy rescue may seem like an odd job for paramedics, but because NSW Ambulance is the primary rescue agency in Tamworth, animal rescues come with the territory.
“The first task was to work out where the puppy was and if we could get access to it,” Adam Ferris explained. “The light scope is a relatively new tool in our kit – and we made excellent use of it. We poked the scope down different pipes, bending the end around corners to search for the pup."
"We found her, saw she was still alive, then started calculating how we were going to get access."
“It was getting dark, so we had to get the lights out. Nicole got out the circular concrete saw, and we started cutting through the slab with a water feed to keep the saw cool. It was hard work, so we called for back-up. Once we got through the slab, we had to dig out clay soil, then work out which of three different pipes the puppy was trapped in. I think we opened every roller door on the rescue truck that night,” Adam said.
Fellow Tamworth SOT Tim Mascorella, Station Officer Anthony McBride, Fire and Rescue NSW and NSW Police also attended the scene.
“We were all holding our breath as Adam carefully used a handheld cutting tool to cut away the PVC drainpipe. There were cheers all round when he pulled the puppy out of that drain,” Tim said.
The whole operation took over an hour-and-a-half. The pup’s good fortune continued too, when her owners gifted her to a good home.
Pictures and video of the heartwarming rescue attracted lots of positive attention in online media and on the NSW Ambulance Facebook page.
“It might sound funny, but this job allowed us to exercise a lot of rescue skills and strategies that we don’t often get to use,” Tim said. “There were elements of confined space rescue and urban search and rescue. We had to use a range of different tools and techniques, and had to do some problem-solving on the spot as well. All in all, it was a really interesting job.”