Love, and Confidence, Lead to Two Rescues
A firefighter went into the water to save his dog (for the second time in a year) because he knew his comrades nearby would come to save him if they had to — and they did:
Firefighter saves his own dog — again
March 27, 2006A firefighter who went into the icy Waukegan Harbor channel to save his dog Friday afternoon was pulled from the water himself by co-workers.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Orusa was walking with his dog “Petey,” a pit bull mix, on the south shore of the channel when the dog bounded into the water, about nine feet deep in that area.
Orusa, who was off-duty, called for help before he went in. “I tried to get him to swim west, toward the bandshell, but he was too scared,” he said. “His eyes got big … Then he went under.”
Orusa said he knew firefighters were close by so he asked a passerby with a cell phone to call 911 and alert them. “I knew they’d come and get us,” he said.
Orusa managed to get Petey and pull him to the surface but he could not get ashore. A chilled Orusa and Petey were pulled out of the water within 10 minutes after rescue workers got the call at about 2 p.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Dan Young.
It was the second time Petey was rescued over the past year. Orusa said he first saw the dog “huddled against that black fence” at Walgreen’s at Belvidere Street and Lewis Avenue in Waukegan last August. “He was scared of the traffic,” he said. “I got took him to car and took him to the animal shelter.”
Later, Orusa said he got a call from the shelter informing him the pup had to be shipped out and that it probably would be destroyed. “They get so many pit bulls,” he said. “They put them all down. They don’t have time to assess their personalities.”
Petey turned out to be “adorable,” Orusa said. “He’s a big lovable dummy. I call him Petey because he looks like the dog in the Little Rascals.”
Both Orusa and Petey are doing fine.
