A feel good story

[BryanLoader]

Way to go lads.

EDMONTON — Edmonton firefighters ventured onto the North Saskatchewan River on Thursday morning to pluck a near-frozen pooch from the icy waters.

A two-man crew in an inflatable “banana boat” managed to reach the struggling dog, a golden retriever named Skipper, and pull it to safety just before it slipped under a sheet of ice on the surface.

“The dog was trying to get onto the ice, but it started going under and you could see it was getting tired,” Capt. Gerrit Meulenkamp said. “We got there just in time.”

The incident occurred around 10 a.m. near the Dawson Bridge at 101st Avenue and 87th Street.

Meulenkamp said he didn’t know what led the dog onto the ice in the first place.

“The dog was pretty tired and cold. The owner was very happy to get it back. She was in tears.”

The banana boat has holes in the base which allow rescue crews to both walk on ice, or float on water.

In this case, the rescuers had to do both because the river ice is in the process of breaking up.

“They walk inside the boat, and here they walked right into the river, managed to paddle up to the dog and grabbed it,” Meulenkamp said.

“One man did the paddling, one man did the scooping.”

[MalahatTwo7]

HUUUUAAAGGHHH The Guns' Crew! BRAVO ZULU Boys.