Emilie Brill: Apple AirTag helps woman reunite with pet dog swept away in California floods
SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA: An Australian shepherd named Seamus was reunited with his dog owner just hours after getting swept away by floodwaters in California. The dog was luckily rescued by a dedicated fire department and an Apple AirTag that helped track him down.
According to San Bernardino County Fire officials and ABC News’ Los Angeles station KABC, Seamus ran away from his owner Emilie Brill during their daily walk. Before Grill could grab her one-year-old pup, he found his way to the edge of a flood control basin near the intersections of I-215 and I-10 and began floating away in the rapid waters in San Bernardino, California, on Monday, January 16. “He got away from me and he just went down into this drainage and, you know, the water was going so fast, I think all it took was one paw in that water and he was gone,” Brill told KABC.
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San Bernardino County Fire wrote in detail about the incident on their Facebook page. The emergency services were called as soon as Seamus was swept away Brill called the emergency services for assistance as soon as Seamus was swept away. Immediately upon their arrival, the crew began canvassing the area but were flagged down shortly after by an employee at a local RV facility on East Redlands Boulevard who told them that he had “heard a dog barking in the nearby channel and witnessed the dog floating down the channel, according to a statement from the agency.
“I saw enough of the dog to see that he was in the river moving downstream,” Captain Andrew Bonhus stated in an interview with KABC following the rescue. “[The RV facility employee said] I started running, lost visual and then heard him barking and he had made his way in from the river into that tube somehow."
The firefighter found the canine stuck at the bottom of an access tube, standing on a pile of debris, after being carried approximately a mile from the spot where he had been swept away. According to ABC, the credit for the rescue goes to Seamus’ Apple AirTag and conventional ID tag, which helped the firefighters locate him in a sewer drain, where he was found uninjured and in good spirits.
“Firefighters quickly made access to the dog, bringing him up the ladder to safety,” stated San Bernardino Fire. “After assessing the dog he seemed uninjured and in good spirits.” Seamus was reunited with his owner shortly after the rescue. “I was just blown away by that level of response from our emergency services and just really grateful that there are people that understand that dogs are family members,” Brill told KABC following the rescue.