Members of the Mingo Junction Fire Department recently came to the rescue of one very good boy.
"Puff," a St. Bernard who lives in the village, suffered an attack and needed a helping hand.
"I was screaming for my grandson to come down. I thought it killed him," Puff’s owner Bobbie Jo said.
Puff had been going about his normal day when his owner noticed something was wrong.
“The other day, I had the basement door open doing laundry and he had a seizure when my back was turned and his momentum took him all the way down the steps," Bobbie Jo said.
Puff continued to have seizures on and off throughout the night, and Bobbie Jo and her grandson were in trouble The 250-pound dog was afraid to climb back up the stairs.
After a few days of struggling, she decided to ask for help.
"I said ya know, ‘I’m going to call the fire department.’ I know they get cats out of trees, but I’m not sure if they get dogs out of basements or not," she said.
Sure enough, within 15 minutes of a phone call, the Mingo Junction Fire Department arrived to rescue Puff for his family.
"When somebody calls 911, it's usually their worst day,” Mingo Junction Fire Chief Brandon Montgomery said. “We perform on their worst day; it’s our job to them. We assist them do what needs to be done. Any small thing that’s an emergency to them, it may not be to us, but we are here for the citizens."
The team put Puff on a tarp and was able to lift him to safety.
"They just went way beyond,” Bobbie Jo said. “They were all so nice, and after about 15 minutes, we were able to get him out of the basement. But with a 200-pound dog, it was tough."
Bobbie Jo says she is grateful for the rescue and how quickly her fire department answered her cry for help.
"I was so relieved,” she said. “I didn’t know how we were going to get him out of the basement. To think that the fire department would do that. They didn’t have to do that."
“They absolutely didn’t have to. People can say what they want about small towns, but in small towns the people are good people.”
Puff is doing just fine, and he has a trip to the vet in his future.
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