SPRING CITY— A dog was rescued from an irrigation pipe on Sunday night in Spring City after a female veterinarian crawled into the pipe, got hold of the dog, and a paramedic pulled both the woman and the dog out of the pipe.

      Jeff Edmunds of Spring City was walking his dog, Sara, by the irrigation pond just east of the city when she got sucked into one of the pipes.

      The pipe runs about 20 feet down, serving as a drainage pipe for the upper flood area. The dog got stuck at the 12 feet mark due to a large valve in the pipe, which kept her from going any deeper.

      Jared Nicolson of the Spring City Fire Department, used an excavator to dig a ditch nearby to act as a drain and reduce the water level in the pond and decrease the flow from the pond into the pipe.

      Once the water level was low enough, Summer Peterson, the veterinarian and a firefighter, crawled into the pipe to grab the dog. Paramedic Brill Hernandez was able to pull Peterson out of the pipe after she grabbed hold of the dog.

      The dog had spent around three hours in the hypothermic water and was rushed to a veterinarian’s office in Mt. Pleasant. She was in critical care until around 1 a.m. Monday. As of press time, she was having some difficulties but is improving.