The fire department in Colorado has been extensively trained to handle a majority of emergency cases. Being a firefighter leaves you prepared for any call that might come in.
Although, the firefighters are well-prepared, nothing could have got them ready for the event going to unfold throughout the day. They received a call about puppies being in distress. Little did they know, the puppies were hiding something from them.
1. Firefighters and Their Responsibilities
Firefighters have quite a bit of responsibilities on their hands. Putting out a fire is only one of the many things they’ve been trained to do.
They also respond to many other calls they’ve been trained for, such as medical emergencies and animal rescues. Firefighters have experience and knowledge in many things.
2. Firefighter Response Times
For firefighters, answering a call as quickly as possible is key to a successful mission. The Colorado Springs Fire Department has many resources spread throughout their city to answer the calls in a quick manner. A quick response time will help ensure the safety of the individuals or animals involved.
3. Equipped with the Best
To provide the best service, to whatever call they receive, having the best equipment will help ensure safety and efficiency. Colorado Springs Fire Department has many tools and equipment suitable for any emergency.
They have the best companies working on their trucks and other equipment they own, so they can get the job done right.
4. A Normal Day
A normal day for a firefighter consists of answering calls and helping whoever is in the situations they face.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department receives many calls, and this day was no different from any other day. There was no reason for the firefighters to expect what would happen later in the day.
5. A Call in the Ordinary
The Colorado Springs Fire Department has received just as many animal rescue calls on top of the usual fire calls. So, receiving a call to help some animals in need wasn’t anything new.
They took the call and prepared, as usual, for a normal animal rescue mission with the proper procedures in place.
6. Procedures in Place
Certain procedures are placed for any situation such as a fire, a medical emergency, or a fire. The Colorado Springs Fire Department prepared for the animal rescue call with the procedure they had in place.
Following this procedure would ensure a safe and efficient mission for the crew members involved, and the animals involved.
7. Keep in Mind
The firefighters had to keep in mind what the proper procedures were. Even though they followed the procedures the proper way, the team could not possibly know how the animals they were rescuing would react towards them.
This would mean they would need to be extra vigilant and more aware of the surroundings.
8. Do it With Confidence
As the Colorado Springs Fire Department answered the call and deployed towards the scene, they had confidence in themselves. The crew members were trained extensively for these types of situations. They have responded to many animal rescues and this one wouldn’t be any different from usual. Or so they thought.
9. Arriving at the Scene
The firefighters arrived at the scene of action only minutes later. The team of firefighters quickly assessed the area and the situation they had at hand. This is when they realized the animals in need of rescue were trapped inside a storm grate. They had to quickly step into action.
10. Weather Conditions
The firefighters knew that if there was rain the animals would be in immediate danger. They also knew the weather wasn’t calling for rain.
However, this did not mean the animals were not still in danger. This only meant they needed to act quickly to ensure the safety of the animals.
11. Making a Plan
The Colorado Springs Fire Department team of firefighters who were on the scene knew they needed to make a plan, and quick.
They decided to send one of their crew members down into the storm grate to bring the animals up. They needed to do this as quickly, so the animals were no longer in harm’s way.
12. Popping the Hatch
The first part of their plan was removing the storm grate. The firefighters all gathered together, so they could remove it and get to the animals.
Once they had removed the storm grate, they quickly came to a conclusion. The animals in jeopardy were actually babies. This made the situation a little more tricky.
13. Why Did They Hide There?
Once the Colorado Springs Fire Department’s crew of firefighters realized that the animals in danger were babies, they were left with many unanswered questions. One of the questions they had was, why were the baby animals hide inside a sewer? This was not a secure place for baby animals. Read more about that on the next page!
14. The Unknown
There were a lot of unknown aspects of this animal rescue mission. Why the baby animals were in the sewer was one.
Another question was, where was the mother to the babies? The firefighters were left wondering. However, they needed to get the layout of the sewer, so they could help save the baby animals.
15. Being Alive is a Miracle
With the condition of the sewers, the firefighters could not believe these baby animals were still alive.
It was an awful area for any animal to live in. It didn’t provide any warmth that baby animals needed, no food resources, and it was full of filth that is detrimental to animal health.
16. A Few Decisions
The firefighters were faced with a few decisions upon learning that the animals they were rescuing were babies. They still had no idea what type of animal they were going to be helping.
If they found out they were wild animals, and they left their scent on them, the mother may not come back to care for them. Even without knowing if they’d survive, they ultimately decided to continue with the rescue.
17. Next Steps
Being unaware of what animals they were about to rescue, the firefighters still decided to continue. They could only hope the mother of the babies would come back and care for them. In order to decide what they were going to do, they needed to know what the animals were.
18. Several Questions Unanswered
The Colorado Springs Fire Department were still left with many unanswered questions. They needed to find out if the animal babies were domesticated animals or wild animals.
This would play a role in the overall rescue mission. In order to find the answer to this question, they would need to pull the babies from the storm grate.
19. Continuing the Rescue
The firefighters proceeded on with the rescue mission. They equipped themselves with gloves so if they were wild animals, the mother wouldn’t be able to smell the firefighter’s scent on the babies. Once they pulled the babies from the sewer, they would place them on a sheet to be safe.
20. The First One Out
One of the firefighters went down to retrieve the baby animals in the sewer. When the first baby animal was placed upon the sheet, everyone on the scene was in shock. The baby animal was very small.
It could barely move around and started to roll from how small it was.
21. New Identity
The first baby animal was pulled from the storm grate, letting the firefighters guess upon their identity. The baby animals seemed to look like puppies. With their appearance of their fur, the firefighters assumed the tiny puppies were Labradors. But everyone was questioning why the puppies were in the sewer.
22. Abandoned Puppies
Knowing there were abandoned puppies in the sewer started to upset the people on the scene of action. They didn’t understand why they were left in such an unsafe place. They knew that sometimes owners would discard of animals when they weren’t wanted and would abandon them in many places.
23. Optimistic Thinking
Even with the thought of the puppies being discarded by an owner, the firefighters knew that they needed to continue with rescuing the puppies. Knowing that they were dealing with puppies made the rescue easier.
The firefighters remained optimistic that the poor puppies weren’t just discarded like unwanted trash. Read more about that.
24. Lessons to be Learned
This particular rescue provided many opportunities to learn different things. It gave the firefighters the knowledge and experience of rescuing animals from a storage drain.
But it also sparked the knowledge of needing to advocate where to place unwanted animals. There are plenty of solutions than to put the animal in harms way.
25. More Questions
The sewer drain was not very deep, so this helped in the aide of the rescue. The firefighters were unaware of the number of puppies needing to be saved.
But with the appearance of the tiny puppies, they knew they had been in the sewer for quite some time. So, they proceeded on with the rescue.
26. How Did the Puppies Get Here?
With the tiny, helpless puppies packed together tightly to get warm, the firefighters began questioning. It was odd for puppies to be in a sewer.
So how did the baby puppies get there? This thought led them to call the woman who reported the incident in hope for some answers.
27. Receiving Some Answers
The firefighters called the lady. She answered and told them what had happened. She said there was a stream of water going into the drain.
She saw the puppies get swept away by that stream and sucked into the drain as well. This answer made a sigh of relief amongst the firefighters as they now knew nobody discarded of them.
28. A Bad Time
This meant that the puppies hadn’t been discarded into the sewer by someone, and that the assumption from the firefighters was wrong.
The lady who called the fire department, called just in time and the firefighters saved the puppies before there was any rain to put them in a fatal situation.
29. She Tried
The heroic lady who reported the puppies did make an attempt to save them. Once she saw the little puppies being swept into the stream, she tried to run after them.
Although, her attempt didn’t work, she still saved them in the end. If the lady didn’t call the fire department, then the puppies would’ve been stuck in the sewer.
30. Backup
The lady who reported the puppies did ultimately save them by calling the firefighters as her backups. She helped in the aide of the successful retrieval of the puppies from the storm grate. The firefighters had the skill set, equipment, and the experience needed to successfully rescue the baby animals.
31. Making an Example
The lady reporting the problem gave an example to follow. If all the people within the community could report the issues or things going wrong, then it could be properly fixed. The firefighters hoped that everyone would follow her example and report the necessary problems, so no harm is done.
32. Guess Who
Since the firefighters were able to successfully pull all the puppies out of the sewer, they could now see them better. This meant they could try and identify what they were. The people at the scene came to the conclusion that, based on appearance, the puppies had to be Labradors.
33. Aftermath
Now that the firefighters had successfully retrieved all the puppies from the sewer, they could now be transported to a different location. They took them straight to the humane society, so they could be cared for. This gave firefighters the peace of mind that the puppies would be safe. Read more on the next page!
34. Great News
The firefighters received a call from the humane society stating that the puppies were actually healthy, despite being a little under nourished. The humane society even stated that looking at the puppies, you wouldn’t be able to tell they were in a sewer. With the knowledge of the puppies being healthy, the firefighters were happy and asked for updates.
35. More Updates
There were many firefighters from the Colorado Springs Fire Department that helped that day. One of the firefighters was Mark Jenkins. He is also the one who told the humane society to call and give him updates. He did get an update on the puppies, and it came sooner than he thought it would.
36. Unexpected Turn
The vet called Jenkins to update on the puppies they had rescued. Within this call, he told the firefighter that the puppies were doing great and that he was glad the team had rescued them. Although, the next but of information the vet was about to tell Jenkins was unexpected.
37. Puppies or Not?
Mark Jenkins, the firefighter who was on the scene, had no idea what the vet was going to tell him. His entire team of firefighters on the scene were wrong. The puppies weren’t Labradors because the puppies weren’t even puppies. Jenkins didn’t know what to say with the information just provided.
38. Didn’t Think of it
While still in shock from what he heard, the vet told him that the puppies were actually baby foxes. With this information provided, Mark Jenkins had no idea what to say. The team of firefighters is completely wrong in their initial assumptions of the baby animals being Labrador puppies. Read more in the next point!
39. Very Wrong
The next thought that Jenkins had been, how were we all so wrong? The vet reassured Jenkins that in the newborn stage that puppies and baby foxes had quite a few similarities.
When baby foxes are small, they aren’t red, they are dark. So, it wasn’t too far off to believe that people could mistake the baby foxes for puppies.
40. In the End
Despite being completely wrong about what the animals even where, Jenkins went to tell his crew of firefighters the news. When he told everyone, they were actually baby foxes, nobody could believe the news either. Regardless, the animal rescue went well, and the baby animals were safe and healthy. What a great story about how Jenkins rescued these cute foxes!