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All in a day's work: Firefighters rescue pooch from Fan Pier perch

Print | Comments () Posted by Martin Finucane September 29, 2010 05:31 PM

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David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Firefighter Chris Tillman played with the rescued Sammy at the fire station.

By L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

A 69-year-old Boston woman and her dog were rescued this morning after the canine became stuck on a narrow ledge off Fan Pier while exploring.

Mary Gier of Boston said she had let her dog Sammy off his leash to explore the rocks along the seawall, like the canine had done many times before, when the 10-year-old animal found himself stuck on a ledge with rocks below. Gier told him to stay and climbed down to the ledge, which was about 12 inches wide and 15 feet in the air.

She could not lift Sammy, a 60-pound Norwegian elkhound, up from the ledge. A bystander called the fire department for help around 10 a.m.

“I wasn’t going to leave him,” Gier said. “I could move, but he couldn’t.”

Firefighters immediately helped Gier up, and another firefighter, Chris Tillman, climbed down and lifted Sammy back to the pier, said Captain Gregory Fall, who also responded to the scene.

She and Sammy were stuck on the ledge for about 40 minutes, Gier said.

The dog rescue happened the same day the fire department accepted the donation of 60 pet oxygen masks. Fall said he mentioned the gift of the masks in passing to Gier after the rescue.

Impressed with the pet oxygen masks and grateful for her own dog’s rescue, Gier said, she donated money to the department in order to buy more masks.