A woman who ventured onto the South Saskatchewan River to retrieve a dog had to be rescued by the Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD).
Officials with the fire department said the RCMP contacted them just before 2 p.m. Monday asking for assistance with a person in the river south of the city.
A rescue boat was deployed and a woman was located on an ice shelf on the river.
Leah Grigg was trying to rescue her dog Abby, Leah’s partner Heather Jamison told Global News.
According to Jamison, Grigg and the puppy were walking in Furdale Dog Park, south of Saskatoon, along the river when Abby ventured onto the ice.
The dog and Grigg both fell through and the current swept them both downstream, where Alexandra and Glen Green heard Grigg calling for help.
When the daughter and father realized someone was in distress Alexandra called 911 and Glen rushed to see who was calling out.
“I got right to the river, I said ‘please call, where are you?’” he said.
He heard Grigg yelling “help” from below him.
“I look downstream and there she was … I saw a head in the water and then it looked like two heads.”
He had spotted Grigg and Abby.
Glen jumped down a ledge — that was nearly two metres high — to pull them out. Alexandra passed him a spare leash, which he looped around Abby and used to pull her out. Then he helped Grigg out.
Then emergency responders arrived, followed closely by Jamison.
“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said, describing what it was like to see the paramedics, firefighters and police gathered around Grigg.
“Nobody ever wants to imagine their partner — their whole family — being wrapped up in a situation like that.”
Crews determined that it was not advisable to move her up the steep bank, SFD said.
She was placed in the boat and taken to the SFD boat launch where an ambulance was waiting.
Jamison said Grigg is recovering in hospital.
She said she can’t thank the Greens enough, but Glen said there wasn’t anything special about the heroic actions he and his daughter took.
“I did exactly what anyone else would have done… you can’t let someone go down the river, you just got to do something to help.”
SFD – along with Grigg, Jamison and the Greens — are warning people not to go into the water and to stay off the ice.
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