Family Dog Rescued from Drainage Pipe After 8-Hours

A much-loved family dog has been reunited with her owners after spending more than eight hours trapped inside a narrow drainage pipe in Hemel Hempstead. On the evening of Monday 13th October, a rescue mission unfolded in after a family dog named Bella became trapped inside a rainwater drainage pipe.

Bella had been missing for over eight hours when her family discovered she was stuck underground. Despite the best efforts of 15 firefighters earlier in the day, Bella remained trapped, and the family feared the worst.

That’s when help arrived in the form of two drainage engineers from Dyno-Rod who rushed to the scene, responding to an urgent out-of-hours call around 8:30 PM. Using specialist CCTV drainage equipment, the engineers began searching the pipe system in the dark, determined to locate the frightened pup.

With the help of the family, we began calling her name, using both our voices and the light from the camera to guide her towards the exit. Slowly but surely, Bella followed the sound of her family’s voices and the light, inching her way to safety. After a total of 8 hours and 30 minutes underground, she was finally reunited with her overjoyed family.

“It was a long night, but seeing Bella safe and back in her owners’ arms made it all worthwhile,” said one of the engineers involved in the rescue.

Bella’s owner said:

“I can’t thank these two amazing men enough for rescuing my dog… Not only did they come all the way from Cambridge in the middle of the night, they did it out of pure kindness – they didn’t even charge me a penny. Their dedication, compassion and willingness to go above and beyond is something truly rare in this world. We need more people like them! Bella has since been to the vet and thankfully she’s okay!”

Thanks to the combined efforts of emergency services, the family, and the engineers, Bella’s story has a happy ending.

Watch the video of Bella’s rescue here