More than seventy-two hours This is the time it took the Pyrénées-Orientales emergency services to free this Tuesday at 11:50 p.m. a small hunting dog stuck since Saturday, after a hunting trip, in a cavity on the commune of Formiguères (Pyérénes-Orientales).
“This type of rescue is a first. The fox terrier was stuck at the bottom of a channel four to five meters deep. We had to deploy specialized caving resources to reach it,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Alexandre Trani of SDIS 66 who followed the operations from start to finish.
Once the firefighters were certain that the dog was still alive thanks to its barking, they first had to secure the entrance to the fault above which a rock weighing several hundred kilos threatened to fall. . Then, after widening the entrance, the dog still not being accessible, the Spéléo Secours Français association was called in as reinforcements as part of the Orsec departmental underground rescue plan.
“They came from Aude, Ariège and Tarn on Tuesday morning. Using mini explosive charges carried by the gendarmes, in four hours they were able to advance three meters in the granite and reach the dog,” continues the lieutenant-colonel.
Immediately taken to a veterinarian, the little dog, whose name we do not know, only showed slight dehydration with a small wound on one leg. The happy owner was then able to leave with his dog, not without warmly thanking the ten people mobilized for the occasion. As for the bill for these 72 hours of intervention, it could be covered, in whole or in part, by the State.
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