Great Pyrenees Rescued By Baltimore County Fire DNR, EMS After Falling Off Trail At Gunpowder Falls State Park
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- WJZ's news director Gail Bending was walking with her dog, Balto, at Gunpowder Falls State Park on Sunday when Balto, pulling her toward the water, slid down an an eight-foot embankment along the NCR Trail.
When he wasn't able to get back up, she went down after the Great Pyrenees.
"I didn't want to yank his neck too hard, and I just slid down," She said.
She tried to swim, walk and find some way out, but they were stuck.
The Baltimore County Fire Department DNR and EMS rescued her dog in all of an hour.
"You are our heroes and we are so grateful," Bending said in a tweet.
While they were waiting to be rescued, she found a log from a dead tree, moved up enough to sit on the log and tried to keep Balto calm.
"It was chilly, but not terrible, and then we kept falling in, but then he started to panic," Bending said.
Once Baltimore County Fire Cockeysville and Hereford units got to her- a big response of almost 20 people- they sent down a few to get her but couldn't get Balto up on the ladder.
So they grabbed a red rescue tube, one you might see at with a lifeguard at a pool, and tied him to it.
"They pulled him right up, and then I could just climb up," She said. "They were amazing, they had the right equipment,"
She said Balto is at home resting and is doing just fine.
The units told her it had been muddy in that area of the trail recently and a fisherman had gotten stuck just last week.
She said everyone should definitely always have the Find My iPhone option on if they can, and that's how they had found her.
And when they did, Balto was so excited to see them he ran back and forth between the responders trying to say hello to everyone at once.
Andrea Bucher is the DNR ranger who drove a cold wet dog aka Balto, and Bending home in her DNR truck, and Bending said she couldn't be more thankful for everything the responders did.
