‘Tear up the bridge’: Madison firefighters rescue dog stuck under bridge in freezing cold | Local News | Today Headlines

When Madison firefighters were called to rescue a pet on Tuesday morning, it wasn’t a cat stuck in a tree they found, but rather a dog trapped under a deck — and in dangerously cold temperatures.

The owners had been trying to get the little dog out from under the deck of the house on the southwest side for an hour before the Madison Fire Department’s Ladder 7 pulled to a halt on the 2600 block of Blvd. McKenna, department spokeswoman Cynthia Schuster said in a statement.

When firefighters arrived shortly after 8:45 a.m., the temperature was hovering around zero. Concerned for the dog’s safety, Schuster said, one of the owners told firefighters, “Tear up the bridge. We want our dog alive.”

The only way under the bridge was a “very small hole” where the dog likely went, Schuster said, so firefighters acted on the owner’s request and began cutting through the bridge.

An inspection hole was drilled in the part of the bridge where the dog had last barked, she said. More decking then had to be removed. When the dog was finally located, its leash got caught in the nails on the bridge, Schuster said. The leash was undone and the dog returned unharmed to its owners.