LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — First responders and animal response teams in Luzerne County say they will never forget the trying and difficult day they had on Wednesday. It took them 12 hours to rescue a dog stuck underground in old mining land in Pittston Township.
"It is deep, it's scary, the breeze falling. We don't know what's going to happen. She briefly looked up at me. I froze. She turned her head, and I couldn't help it; I slam that catchpole down, and I pull. I draw on the catchpole, and she started panicking. And I started, I said, 'I got her, I got her, I got her.' And I ran, fall over, pulled her out of the hole, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, she's out!'" said animal rescue expert John Ackourey.
And just like that, Madison, a chihuahua mix, was saved after being trapped underground for more than 24 hours in a mine-scarred hillside in Pittston Township.
"Everybody up the hill started yelling out, 'He's got her, he's got her.' I said, 'No, we got her,'" said Ackourey. "Because that's what was all about."
Emergency responders, volunteers, and animal rescue teams made the dog's rescue possible, and it all started with a look inside the hole.
"What it looked like was an opening or a tunnel of sorts that had railroad ties and debris actually giving it some structural stability," said Pittston Township Deputy Fire Chief Anthony Ranieli.
Madison was stuck in a bedroom-size cavern that was about two feet high.
"It was very tough to walk around. Every time you made a movement, you felt the sponginess underneath you, you know. If we dropped the tool on the ground, you felt it about 10 feet away," said Ranieli.
These men say a response of this size was necessary because of how dangerous and unstable the ground was.
"We'd have to back off a little bit, where they had their hand on the ropes that were connected to us to pull us out just in case," Ackourey said.
"We had a partial collapse, and at that point, we believe that the dog may have been involved. So that's when we asked the owner to step away, and we need to reevaluate our tactics," said Ranieli.
That's when first responders took turns digging a trench while keeping an eye on oxygen levels underground to get closer to the dog, even though that option had a 50/50 chance of being successful.
"When you see these guys working, and they were so determined in the heat, and all of us, everybody, 'Hey, you OK? Are you OK?' Water's being handed out on a regular, every 10 minutes," Ackourey said.
"So for all that work, for all that manpower, all the tactics, the wonders, the worries, everything that accumulated throughout the day, to see that it was all successful, and to watch the dog come out and see that she was OK and in good health, that's why we do this job. That's it," Ranieli added.
Madison is home resting with her family in Pittston Township, safe and sound.