KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Missouri Fire Department was called to a water rescue on east 43rd street and Pittman Road Thursday, to find the victim who fell through thin ice.
The victim was a dog.
“It’s not a good feeling pulling up and seeing him struggling you know to get out of the ice.” said Carson McGhee, a K.C. firefighter who was on the first truck to arrive on the scene.
KCFD Rescue squads raced into action to save the dog fighting for its life in Riss Lake.
McGhee says the dog was almost out of energy.
“It was trying to get out, hanging on the edge.”
Gala Lee, who lives next to Riss Lake was walking her dog about noon Thursday when she says she saw the dog go under.
“It was chasing the geese and just dropped,” Lee said.
She called 9-1-1 while trying to save the dog herself until fire rescue squads arrived.
“They yelled at me to get out, to get off the ice, but when you are in this stage and the dog was about to drown, you don’t think about anything just hurry up and help.”
Firefighters say that’s one of the reasons they respond to calls of distressed animals. Citizens who have tried to help save animals have become drowning victims themselves.
Thursday, Firefighter Chuck Dimartino shimmied out onto the ice to save the dog, and says it was very happy to see him.
“I just slowly crept up on him and was just kind of trying to ease my voice and let him know that I was going to be there any second. I probably got a couple feet away and he jumped right on me,” Dimartino said.
Something Gala Lee, who moved to Kansas City from Russia 7 years ago, says never would have happened in her home country.
” For one dog? The whole fire department? I love America! Thank God. Thank them.”
Lee says the dog belongs to nearby neighbors. Fire officials say after the dog was rescued, it was taken to be checked out by Animal Control.
