Dog falls down storm drain, baffles rescuers

By Ethan McSweeney

Maricopa fire crews and other responders braved the heat on June 11 to try to rescue a four-legged friend that had fallen down a storm drain.

A dog, which was being walked on a leash, was frightened by a passing bicyclist and somehow fell down a storm drain on the road west of the Villages at Rancho El Dorado Clubhouse, said Chip Wright, a spokesman for the Maricopa Fire Department.

Wright isn’t sure what kind of dog it was, but it was presumed a small breed in order to fall through the opening in the storm drain, he said.

A search and rescue mission involving several agencies soon formed to find the dog, including the Maricopa Police Department, Global Water and city engineers, in addition to MFD. Community Emergency Response Teams also came out to provide water and shade to the teams working.

The engineers determines the storm drain was a closed system that emptied into the Green Belt, an area where storm runoff flows. So, the responders removed the grate at the end of the storm drain.

After calling out for the dog and getting no response, Global Water then brought out a camera to search for the dog inside the storm drain, Wright said. Then police received a call that the dog was at a nearby veterinarian’s office.

Just as the dog had found a way to fall into the storm drain, it found a way to get out. The dog showed up at a local business that happened to be next door to the veterinarian, who checked it for a chip and called the owner, Wright said.

The dog may have found its way out of the storm drain quickly, before crews removed the grate in the Green Belt, Wright said.

“No one knows for sure how the dog got out,” Wright said.