110-Pound Dog Rescued After Getting Stuck In A Drain Pipe On Long Island

Wading River, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Suffolk County firefighters made a risky rescue Sunday, saving a dog on Long Island's North Shore.

From his playful greetings, you would never be able to tell that Sunday, around 1 p.m., 6-year-old Carson was fighting for his life. He was stuck in an 18-inch wide drainage pipe after slipping into a freezing pond at the Great Rock Golf Course.

"By the time I was able to jump into the water, look at it, he had backed himself up 20, 30 feet and then every time I called to him he just started backing up even further," said Carson's owner Jim Devany.

Carson got as far back as 50 feet deep, Devany said. He tried to dig him out but to no avail, so he called first responders.

"We wanted to get the dog out as fast as possible," said Wading River Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Branden Heller. "We were concerned that with the weather and how its been in the hole for the drainage pipe, it could be injured."

The fire department used saws and various specialized tools to get down to the drainage pipe.

It took a total of about 15 first responders to rescue the dog, reported CBS2's Charlie Cooper. Because of the size of the hole, only two of them could alternate in and out of it.

"Because they had the sewage drainer, I was tiny enough to put my arm down and try and coax him with the threats and try and get him but the dog was too big to move forward," said Wading River Fire Department EMT Sabrina Santiago.

"I know he was scared. We could hear him shaking and crying," said Devany.

Devany kept his cool for the entire and a half his dog was underground. He was able to estimate about how far Carson had gone into the pipe for firefighters to cut it safely.

"Just by luck the owners knew where their baby was and they knew exactly where to go," Santiago said.

"When the hole was cut and the homeowner basically assisted the dog out. We were shocked to a 110-pound Labrador retriever come out of the small, little, tiny hole. He was a big dog. He was very happy to be out," Heller said.

"It was like having a child being born again, I guess," Devany said.

Back on solid ground, uninjured and with lots of love waiting for him on the other side.