Every now and then, I will hear a transmission over the radio that really piques my curiosity. One of those instances happened last night.
D, my probationary, and I had just finished loading up our shop with our gear, when over the radio we heard another unit say that she needed the fire department to check by on her scene. There was nothing unusual about that request. Then the dispatcher asked for patient information. Usually the response is something like, “white male, mid 30s, conscious and breathing with a cut to the arm,” or something similar. This time the response was, “a poodle.” It would have been awesome if she would have said, “white male, covered in curly fun, 28 in dog years, scared to death.” I pulled up her call slip on our mobile computer. Her call slip stated that a dog had gotten its head stuck under a fence. As we were driving toward the call, I wondered just how necessary this was going be. Were the police and fire departments really needed? How stuck can the dog really be? Why can’t the dog owner figure out a way to set the dog free? If the dog is stuck under the fence, what about digging it out? All of these thoughts were going through my head.
When we arrived, there were two officers and a Sergeant already on the scene. A K-9 officer arrived as we were pulling up. When D and I walked up, they all tried to be funny and asked if we were there to take doggy prints or pictures since we were riding the print unit. They asked if I had a “paw pad” for the prints. Everyone has jokes.
I walked over to the fence. The fence was wrought iron, six feet tall with 5 inches between the bars. At the bottom of the fence between every two bars was a 4 inch in diameter circular piece of wrought iron that had been welded in place. The dog’s head was stuck through one of the circles. The owner of the dog was sitting on the ground holding the back of the dog and his “partner” was on the other side of the fence trying to keep the dog calm with soothing words. I have to admit, the dog was stuck worse than I expected. Even so, my first thought was “if he got his head through the circle, his head will come back through the circle.” The K-9 officer was thinking the exact same thing. He wanted to douse the dog with water and lather up its head with some dog shampoo that he had with him. Sounded like a great idea to me. About the time that he was bringing the shampoo and water over to the dog, the fire department arrived.
Now do not misunderstand me, I appreciate the fire department. They are very helpful and do a great job. However, in this type of situation, they would rather stick an ice pick in their head than listen to an idea from the police. Maybe it has to do with department rivalries? The four firemen from the fire engine huddled around the dog. The K-9 officer gave his suggestion of the shampoo, but that was quickly shot down by the firemen. They used the analogy of a kid getting his head stuck in between the balusters (vertical rails) of a stairway. Sometimes, what goes through will not come back out. Ok, that sounds reasonable when you are talking about a child. However, most children are not covered in fur with two floppy ears. This dog’s fur was rather loose and had a little more give than your average child’s skin. At the minimum, why not try it before destroying the fence with cool fire department cutting tools?
The firemen would hear nothing of it, and set out to figure out the best way to cut the dog free. They started out with a gigantic pry bar. The type that they use to pry open car doors or force entry into homes. Huge. They quickly decided that was not the right tool for the job. They went back to the fire engine, opened up all of the cabinets and drawers, but could not find another tool that they thought might work. At this point, maybe lather up the dog with shampoo? Nope. How about call out a heavy rescue ladder truck with an abundance of cool tools? Yes sir. The ladder truck arrived and four more firemen joined us. They talked it over for a while, and the first tool of choice was a hack saw. They removed the blade and tried to saw the weld that was holding the circular piece to the bars. The fireman could not get a good grip on the blade, so it was on to the next tool. They grabbed a Rabbet tool, a hand powered portable hydraulic ram designed for insertion between a door and its frame for rapid forcible entry. They placed it between the two bars above the dog and started pumping. The bars bent outwards, but the dog was still stuck. Next tool to come out was a cordless reciprocating saw. That was deemed to risky to try. It is difficult to keep a reciprocating saw steady and in one place, especially when the dog would be thrashing about less than an inch away from the blade. Then they got out the cordless grinder. They came to the same conclusion with the grinder as they had with the reciprocating saw.
So the fire department Captain on the scene decided to bring out the big guns. He told his guys to get out the Jaws of Life. The tool that is most commonly used for cutting trapped victims out of vehicles. They unloaded the Jaws and the generator that powers them and fired everything up. At first they tried to cut the actual circular piece of metal that was around the dog’s neck, but there was not enough room between the metal and the dog. Then they decided to cut out a piece of the fence around where the dog was stuck. Six cuts later and the dog had an 18 inch by 12 inch wrought iron collar with razor sharp edges that he was trying to swing around. Eventually, they wrapped a fireman’s coat around the body of the dog and that seemed to calm him down a little bit. Now the problem was how to cut the piece of fence from the dog? While most of the firemen were discussing that, the Captain started working the dog’s fur and skin back through the hole. In about a minute, he had an ear back through. Then another minute and the other ear was through. A little more work and pushing and pulling, and the dog was free. The dog was physically unharmed, but I bet mentally he is a little leery of fences for a little while.
It turned out that the cutting tools were not necessary. It just took a little patience. But where is the fun in that? Why not take out all of the toys and destroy a fence in the process first? After the ladder truck arrived, there were 14 city employees (police and fire) and approximately 2 million dollars worth of city equipment brought to bear to free the dog. And a little water and shampoo would have done the job.
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