HOMER — In emergency services, public safety personnel never know when their next call will come or what it will involve.
Monday afternoon, Banks County Fire/EMS crews responded to a confined space rescue involving a family pet.
"We sent three personnel over, an engine company and one of our med units over, to remove a dog that had fallen into an open well," said Banks County Fire/EMS Chief Steve Nichols. "Some of the property owners there, it was one of their pets and they were very concerned about the animal and we did what we could to help them out."
That included rigging a ropes system and lowering Banks County Fire/EMS employee Keith Freeman into the well to retrieve CoCo.
Nichols credits employee Matt Ruark's expertise with rope rescue as being key to the success, noting Ruark, who also works for Habersham County Fire Services, is a member of a Georgia Search and Rescue (GSAR) task force.
Others participating in the rescue were Cassie Denton and Tyler Hall of Banks County Fire/EMS.
"We did get the animal out of the well, and it was happy to be out and went home with its owner," Nichols said.
Employees asked if they could post pictures on social media, and Nichols approved.
The department's social media post has gotten a lot of attention — "more than I thought it would," Nichols said. "It went from about 3,000-4,000 views on our Facebook page that we have to about 15,000 now, so maybe we'll go viral next week."
