SEATTLE, Wash. — A dog that had been trapped in the rubble of a home destroyed by a landslide has been rescued and is back with its family.
James Fritts and a relative stopped by his property to collect belongings from the wreckage of Fritts’ Seattle home. That’s when they heard a whimper.
“He (Fritts) said ‘I hear her’ and I was like ‘what,’ and so I go down and he yelled her name and I could hear her whimpering too,” Jason Lohr-Johnson told KIRO.
Fire crews were called and along with the help of neighbors and relatives, came up with a plan to get Sammy to safety.
“We cut a hole in the floor and one of the firefighters called out to stop the noise,” Remy Olivier told KIRO. “We stopped sawing and we saw her head and she had enough moment that she was able to get around on her own and we just pulled her out.”
Sammy was carried down a ladder and was soon back to her owner.
Since the slide, friends, relatives and even the Fritts’ have been stopping by the home to gather what they can, but hadn’t heard Sammy until this week.
“To know that I’ve been in the house a number of times to try and get their stuff out and I hadn’t anything is kind of upsetting,” Lohr-Johnson told KIRO.
A landslide on Jan. 7 hit the Fritts’ home after part of a hillside gave way and buried part of the house.
“The house completely pancaked onto the first story. When we arrived on scene, that person was actually trapped in the basement of the home covered in debris,” Kristin Tinsley, a spokesperson for the Seattle Fire Department, told KIRO.
#UPDATE: The landslide pushed the house 20 feet off its foundation.
— Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) January 8, 2022
Mud and debris destroyed the 1st floor and 2nd floor "pancaked" onto the first.
Woman got out okay on her own, the man was rescued - thankfully both are okay. Sadly one pet dog died and another is missing. https://t.co/jF1jMPqzev pic.twitter.com/U0QvLB2IyN
The Fritz family had another dog that had died in the landslide, KIRO reported.
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