By Mikaela Porter, The Hartford Courant
FAIRFIELD — It took several rescuers and a backhoe, but a dog stuck in a concrete drain pipe was rescued on Saturday afternoon.
Shadow, a shepherd-Bassett hound mix, had crawled into a storm drain outflow pipe at the edge of a soccer field and got stuck in a catch basin, about 30 feet inside, police said.
The call to firefighters came in about 1 p.m., and they responded, along with police and an animal control officer, who met the dog’s owner on the scene.
Police said an attempt to reach the dog by crawling into the pile was unsuccessful because the pipe got narrower as it approached the catch basin. So officials called the Department of Public Works for a backhoe.
Firefighters began digging by hand to uncover the catch basin’s concrete top, and then the backhoe lifted the basin’s cap off, police said. A firefighter entered the catch basin, which was less than five feet deep, using an attic ladder, and managed to lift the dog out.
The dog was turned over to animal control.
The public works backhoe was used to replaced the basin top and cover it with dirt again.
One firefighter sustained a minor hand injury, police said.
