8-week-old puppy rescued in Siloam Springs
Published: May 27, 2006
Driving around town looking for garage sales on May 22, Sherry Smith spotted something that she thought she would never see in Siloam Springs.
She spotted what turned out to be a massive effort to rescue an 8-week-old Chihuahua from a sewer pipe.
With the help of more than 100 residents, firefighters, city employees and an area business, the puppy was rescued from the pipe at 1005 Flynt St. The puppy, named Toby, survived in the pipe for seven hours, with the help of firefighters, who fed oxygen into the system. “You see this on TV, and you never think it’s going to happen here,” Smith said. “Everybody just pulled together.”
People kept coming with picks and shovels, asking if they could help in any way. “They worked like five or six hours out here while other kids were crying in the neighborhood,” she said.
Toby’s owners, who speak little English, came to Bob Coleman’s home on Maxwell Street for help at 5 p.m. that day. Coleman, the labor line supervisor at Allen Canning Co., is also a sergeant with the Siloam Springs Department of Emergency Management. Two weeks ago, Coleman gave the Chihuahua to Martin Chavez, who works on Coleman’s labor line. “It was a good feeling to me to help out different nationalities in town,” Coleman said. “It shows we care for them just as well as anyone else.”
The dog’s owners likely were the two young girls who were crying, Smith said. Six or seven children were at the home while the dog was being rescued, Coleman said.
Rescuers could hear the dog bark but couldn’t see it. “We were going to stay there until we got it out,” Coleman said.
Coleman dug several holes in the yard around the house. “Every so many feet, they’d knock a hole,” Smith said.
Coleman told the pet owners that he would need more help when he realized that the puppy kept sliding farther down the pipe.
Two Siloam Springs firefighters responded to the animal rescue at 7:55 p.m., Fire Chief Jimmy Harris said. They spent about three hours on the scene, providing ventilation for the puppy. “It was unsure how the dog got into the (sewer) pipe,” he said.
Harris said sewer pipes often contain a deadly amount of methane gas, so the oxygen was a precaution. “(The Fire Department) bought us a lot of time,” Coleman said.
Harris said the puppy likely fell into the sewer pipe near an access point next to the home.
Meanwhile, members of the Department of Emergency Management used a camera system provided by Allied Plumbing to locate the puppy in the 6-inch-wide pipe. The Sewer Department sometimes uses Allied Plumbing for its camera, Harris said.
With the aid of the camera, Harris said, rescuers made a rope with a loop on its end and fished it about 50 feet down the pipe. Toby was sitting in the pipe about 12 feet under the road in front of the home. “When we got the puppy out, (the neighbors and rescuers) started cheering,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the puppy was not injured. “The pup was in good shape,” Harris said.
Smith said she wanted to thank the Emergency Management Department, the Fire Department, the Water and Sewer Departments, Animal Services, Allied Plumbing and the community members who helped in the rescue. “Nobody’s ever done that before,” said Coleman, who has worked in the Emergency Management Department for eight years. “It was a good training exercise for us.”
Harris said it could have been a child in the sewer system. “That’s what worries us,” he said.
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