Preston VFD rescues puppies

In the minds of many people, possibly most peo­ple, firefighters fight fires, structure fires, grass & woodland fires. It is inher­ent in the title firefighter. However, today’s fire­fighter is engaged in much more than just fighting fires. There is also all man­ner of rescue efforts that must be undertaken, even the rescue of puppies, such as what took place on Wednesday, April 27, when Preston Volunteer Fire De­partment responded to the scene where three puppies were trapped under ex­tremely heavy bridge-deck­ing, concrete slabs which weighed about four tons each.

The rescue took place on Lillian Scott Road, when the family realized the puppies were missing on that Wednesday morning. After discovering where the pup­pies were, the Preston VFD was contacted, however they were faced with a daunting task in trying to move the 4-ton slabs. Chief Jason Sharp stated that his department has a 5-ton mil­itary vehicle, and they were able to hook a chain to the slabs and move two of them before the chain broke.

However, one puppy was still trapped in a small crack between two of the slabs. The firefighters came up with the ingenious idea of using the Jaws-of-Life spreaders to slide the slabs apart far enough to re­trieve the last puppy. Sharp said that they didn’t know if the spreaders would work, but it got the job done and that was all that mattered.

When last seen the pup­pies were a little worse for wear, but doing fine, and the effort shows that Kem­per County’s volunteer fire­fighters are truly the rescue personnel for its citizenry, and will come the aid of those in distress, when and where they are needed.