OLD FORGE, Pa. – Emergency crews rescued a dog after the senior pup tumbled into a sinkhole in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, Thursday.
Tom Borthwick, of Old Forge, said he was surprised to see the hole that had opened up on his family’s property, and even more surprised when he got close to the edge and saw his son’s dog at the bottom.
“I saw a hole in the yard and I thought, ‘What’s that?’ I walked over and saw that my son’s dog was in the hole. He’s a 14-year-old husky, he’s got a little arthritis, so I hope he’s OK. He looks like he’s OK,” Borthwick said.
Damon the dog was about eight feet below ground in a sinkhole that was likely caused by the previous week’s heavy rain.
The Borthwicks called the police and then the fire department, which came equipped with a ladder truck, a pulley system, and a few of Damon’s favorite treats.
Firefighters lowered Lt. Ron Coles into the hole, who managed to secure Damon and bring the unharmed husky to the surface.
“(Damon) seemed tired, he didn’t want to fight,” Lt. Coles said. “It was really easy to put (on) the harness (and) attach him to me.”
The fire department has run a few pet rescue operations but a dog in a sinkhole was admittedly a new one for Old Forge.
It’s been a rough week for many in Old Forge after the area was hit hard by flooding. For the first responders, a happy ending was long overdue.
“The firemen, they’ve been running nonstop from road closures, and flooding roadways, to pumping hundreds and hundreds of basements throughout the borough. So, you got to give a lot of credit to them for them to find the time to pick a dog out of a hole,” said Old Forge Police Chief Jason Dubernas.
Damon won’t be allowed in the backyard for a while, the family said.
Officials from the Office of Surface Mining plan to come out on Friday to check out the sinkhole and try to figure out how to fix it.