A successful ending to the rescue of a dog and its owner from the deep water of a pond in rural Iuka Monday afternoon.
Iuka Fire Chief Kenny Eagan says a dog owned by Ernie Mulvaney of the 7500 block of Koehnke Road fell through the ice of the pond. When Mulvaney went out into the water in a small boat to try and get the dog back, the boat took on water and capsized upside down.
Mulvaney was able to call a cousin in Salem when the boat began to take on water and told his cousin he couldn’t get to shore fast enough. The cousin in turn called 911 and the Iuka Fire Department and United Medical Response were dispatched to the scene.
Eagan says when the fire department arrived Mulvaney was hanging onto the boat and the ice.
Firemen were able to throw a rope to Mulvaney and get him up to the solid ice. Mulvaney then went back into the water with a ladder and backboard put together by the fire department to try and reach the dog. With the help of a rope, the dog was then brought back onto the solid ice and pulled to the bank. Eagan says the dog weighed about 50 pounds.
United Medical Response checked Mulvaney at the scene for any hypothermia related problems, but he did not require hospital treatment. Eagan says the pond appeared to have an aerator to keep the water from freezing in the center. He’s not certain the depth of the pond, but said the water level was over Mulvaney’s head.
The Iuka Fire Department received the call at 1:30 Monday afternoon.
