Jan. 06--A dog who ran off from its owner chasing a squirrel was wedged in a pipe for more than a day before being rescued by suburban firefighters.
The Carol Stream Fire District was called to the driveway entrance to Rogers Flooring at 27W743 St. Charles Rd., which borders West Chicago, around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 2.
"The dog was trapped about 12 feet down this pipe and they had no way to get it out. It was wedged," said Carol Stream Battalion Fire Chief John Bellandi. "It had mud in the bottom of it and as the dog ran in chasing the squirrel, it got stuck."
The dog's owner was walking it on New Year's Day without a leash when it took off to get the squirrel, Bellandi said. Someone later heard it bark and found it in the concrete pipe.
Carol Stream firefighters were called in by the DuPage County Sheriff's Office and the county's animal control and public works departments for help.
They spent about an hour digging the dirt off the top of the pipe, cut a hole in it, reached in and grabbed the dog out.
"We've had some pet rescues before but we normally find them stuck in basement window wells and under decks," Bellandi said. "It was cold out. I'm glad we found it when we did."
