Dog Missing for Over a Month Found Stuck in a Hole Near Raging Car Fire in Massachusetts
Dogs can have nine lives, too, or at least this lucky pup does.
According to an April 21 Facebook post from the West Springfield Fire Department in Massachusetts, firefighters responding to a car fire discovered a surprise near the scene of the blaze.
"This afternoon, WSFD and Chicopee FD responded to a vehicle fire on Interstate 91. One vehicle was fully involved, and the fire ruptured the gas tank, which spilled gasoline onto the roadway and was heading towards storm drains," the fire department shared on social media.
"The driver was removed from the vehicle, and the fire was extinguished. The occupant was transported to a local hospital with burns and smoke inhalation. They are expected to survive, and the injuries are considered to be non-life-threatening," WSFD added about the incident.
According to the firefighters, once the fire was out, "crews began to divert the fuel from entering the drains." During this process, the rescuers discovered a dog "not involved in the initial incident" in a storm drain. The fire department shared several photos of the canine in its post. In one, the black-and-white dog appears stuck in the giant hole that makes up the storm drain.
Related: Wiener Dog Lost on Rugged Island for 529 Days Is Safe After 1,000 Hours of Searching, Rescue Says
The crew collected the dog and brought her to Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center in Springfield for a veterinary exam and microchip scan. The kind deed unearthed even more good news.
The animal shelter discovered that the storm drain dog was a beloved pet named Ally, who had been missing from home for over a month.
"We don't know how she ended up in there or how long she'd been in there. I don't think there had been a single sighting yet, until that moment when the car caught on fire," Renee Robichaud, a supervisor at Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control, told Western Mass News.
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Lieutenant Dennis Foley of the West Springfield Fire Department agreed with Robichaud that it was incredibly fortunate that firefighters found Ally stuck in the drain.
"I think winning the lottery would be better odds than us finding a dog that we weren't looking for," he told the outlet.
Related: Dog Owner Orders Pet's 'Last Meal' and Is Shocked By Restaurant's Response
Foley noted that firefighter Justin Burchell was the one who heard Ally's yelps for help and followed them until he found the canine.
Once Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control discovered Ally's identity, the staff immediately contacted the dog's family to organize a reunion. The dog is now back with her family and doing well after 34 days away from home.
Read the original article on People
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hole in the road causes lane closures on overpass above busy interstate
Multiple lanes on two roadways have been closed for construction due to a hole in the road. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Colerain Police posted on Facebook Monday evening that there would be lane closures on Colerain Avenue due to a hole in the overpass road. In an update from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Colerain Police posted on social media Tuesday afternoon that work would begin Tuesday night. TRENDING STORIES: 'Flamingo felons' arrested after statue stolen for second time 5-year-old expected to survive after suspected drunk driver runs red light Solicitor doesn't have required permits, resists arrest after reports of suspicious behavior Colerain Avenue, or U.S. Route 27, was reduced to one lane Monday on the bridge over I-275. All traffic will continue to be shifted into the left-turn lane Tuesday night as crews from ODOT and Prus Construction Company begin repairs, according to the social media post. Drivers can expect the lane closures nightly, from 6:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. the following day, until all repairs to the hole in the roadway are completed. This also includes nightly lane closures on I-275 West, according to the post. All work is anticipated to be completed by June 20. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ford Maverick Recalled For A Ridiculous Reason
Read the full story on The Auto Wire It's another week and the Blue Oval has yet another safety recall, this one for the Ford Maverick compact truck. The issue that's been announced via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is small and ridiculous, but owners will still have to take their pickup to a dealership for the again, even though the recall has been issued, Ford doesn't exactly have a fix for the problem. We've seen this with the Blue Oval and other automakers lately, but they eventually come up with some sort of solution. Although sometimes Ford has to then issue a recall to fix recall work done before – that's another issue entirely. For this recall, it applies only to 2025 Ford Mavericks, with 63,898 of them affected. For some reason, only on that model year are the retaining clips for the airbag indicator light having problems. They 'may be loose or dislodged' says NHTSA, which then means you wouldn't know if the airbag in your cute little truck is deactivated. That's a safety risk because you don't know the safety device isn't armed and ready to explode in your face during a crash. It's also a violation of federal regulations, so it has to be fixed. We wonder how many 2025 Maverick owners will just skip this recall until they inevitably have to take their vehicle in for another safety recall. Don't act like that isn't coming, because it definitely is. Plus, we don't know when Ford will have a repair for this airbag indicator light's clips. It might be in a few weeks or maybe a few months, but hopefully not that long. Likely, a lot of people won't see this recall as something so urgent. After all, it's not like your vehicle driving forward when they're supposedly in reverse gear. Image via Ford Join our Newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube page, and follow us on Facebook.
Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Hard Top vs. Soft Top: Which Jeep Roof is Best?
Asking whether a hardtop or soft top is right for your Jeep Wrangler is like asking whether vanilla or chocolate is better. It's mostly a matter of preference. However, as a soft top-wearing Jeep owner myself (and therefore having to maintain and endure it), I wondered if I should bite the bullet and convert it to a hardtop. As I did some research, dredged through several owners' forums, and compared pricing, replacing my soft top with a hardtop turned out to be more of a difficult decision than I expected it to be. While looking through some of the owner's pages I've joined on Facebook, I saw one commenter explain it simply: "A soft top is great until you run into some heavy rain. A hard top is great until you have to take it off." It seems simple: all-around, the soft top would be the better choice, right? The more I thought about it, the more the two choices seemed to even out. Here's what I learned in my research. I assumed ownership of my Uncle's Moab-bred in late August of last year. Until then, I'd never owned or driven a Jeep. My Uncle called and told me the Jeep was becoming too difficult for him to maintain, and offered to sell it to me at a very handsome price. I jumped at the chance after I fell in love with it about 10 years prior. My husband and I had to park it outside since we only had a one-car garage, but the weather in Bend, Oregon, is very mild. However, last year we endured a very cold, wet, and snowy winter. The soft top was not an asset then. In fact, until we moved into a place with a two-car garage, the Jeep had a "leaking" problem. As it turns out, the soft top did not appreciate having snow on top of it and would leak where the top met the door and onto the carpet. So, every time it snowed, I'd have to go out and push the snow off. If it snowed heavily, I'd have to do it more often to keep weight off it. Rain affected the Jeep very similarly. Light rain was fine, but heavy rain with high winds resulted in wet floors. I have all-weather mats, and the rain would largely collect there, but if you didn't, you could easily have a mold problem on your hands. Leaking, of course, depends on a variety of factors, like brand, the severity of the weather, fitment, age, and wear. But the fact of the matter is-it's not uncommon for soft top owners to report leaking. Hard tops can also leak depending on the same variables as the soft top, but they're a lot more resistant to leaks because they don't flex as much as soft tops do. They're heavy and made of sturdier materials, so heavy wind won't cause them to shift. Over time, a soft top can stretch from the constant tension, making leaks more possible, too. A hard top will hold its shape, no matter how long you have it on. It's also a lot easier to keep the cabin temperature steady since many hard tops have basic insulation while soft tops don't, so it's the preferred top for those who live in warmer climates and drive it every day. The heater or air conditioner may work perfectly fine, but without the sturdier seals of the hard top, you're just wasting gas to cool or heat the cabin by a few degrees. You likely have summer doors if you have a soft top, but if it's hot, it's hot-even if you're going 80 mph on the freeway with the top and doors off. One of the biggest, most prominent selling points is that you can remove the top and doors from a Jeep and have it be perfectly legal (as long as you have your driver's side and rearview mirror on, of course). That's one of those "Jeep things" that owners of other off-roaders just don't understand. Unless you have a new Ford Bronco, which advertises that owners can remove doors and tops. Anyway, if going topless in public, or on public roads and off-road, is particularly appealing, then a soft top is the obvious answer. A soft top is easier to remove, fold, or lower, as many brands and variations use zippers and velcro to keep it on the frame. In just a few minutes, and without tools, the top can be removed-even if you're on the trail. A hard top, thanks to its rigidity and weight, is a lot more cumbersome to remove, and unless you have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you'll need a friend or a lift system to remove it. They don't fold like a soft top, so you have to have a relatively large place to keep it and remove it before you leave your house for the trail. If you have a garage, great! It can be kept safe there until you come back. If you live in an apartment like many do, you'll need a secure place to keep it since they're very expensive and you don't want to risk it being stolen. You have to commit with a hard top on whether or not you're going topless. With a soft top, there's a lot more flexibility, and technically better gas mileage too, since they don't weigh as much. There are also a lot more soft top styles to choose from, like safari style tops, sunrider tops, and bikini tops for partially open-air driving, for a lot less than a hard top. A hard top doesn't have nearly as many customization options aside from colors. There are one, two, and three-piece hard tops, but they're still difficult to remove by yourself and are difficult to store if you don't have a garage. If you're a sticker freak like I am, hard tops are much nicer to put stickers on for obvious reasons. Since hard tops are sturdy and heavy, there is a ton of aftermarket support for rooftop accessories. Roof racks, baskets, rooftop tents, bike racks, storage boxes, and cargo boxes are much easier to use and enjoy with a hard top since weight is better distributed. I found this to be the case when I was hunting for a roof rack to go on my own Jeep. When I did find a rack that went over, not on top of, my soft top, they were incredibly expensive and didn't support as much weight as the rooftop accessories for the hard top. That's because the weight isn't distributed through the whole chassis, but rather the support points of the rack. So, it looks like I'll be camping on the ground until I can muster up the cash for a hard top and a rooftop tent. They're also much quieter for long drives, too. I love the look of the soft top, but it's incredibly loud at highway speeds. Which isn't a problem for short distances, but after an hour or two, I start to feel myself growing very frustrated with how loud it is. Talking on the phone or listening to my music is a chore. If I had a hard top, it would be a much quieter ride. So, if you're like me and can't physically stand a long drive without talking on the phone or listening to music, a hard top may be the right answer for you. Hard tops are also more secure off-road, since branches or the shifting of gear can't irreparably damage the windows. Some hard tops can come with windows that passengers can open, improving ventilation. A soft top can be damaged pretty badly by branches. Worst case scenario, they can be torn, and then you'll have to replace a $300+ soft top. Camping and overlanding can be much more accessible with a hard top, but it severely limits your open-air options. So, if you go into Jeep ownership fairly confident you're never going to remove the top, the hard top is the best, no-nonsense answer for most Jeep owners. However, if you're dreaming of the freedom of open-air driving and don't plan on bringing much gear with you during your camping and overlanding trips, a soft top could easily work. This is honestly my biggest concern as a soft top owner. Modern Jeeps come from the factory with an anti-theft alarm system, but mine is from 2006 and does not have one. My Uncle's solution to curbing thieves in the Utah desert was to replace the center console with a Tuffy locking console, fit the glove box with a lock, and stuff the CB radio into a locking box. The rear door is also locked, and he put a locking box in the "trunk" that's bolted to the frame. That's all well and good, but thieves by nature aren't very intelligent, and if the doors are locked, they may try to get in by slicing the soft top and hopping in. Once they're in, they won't be able to steal anything from the glove box, center console, or trunk, but now the soft top is ruined. Insurance companies aren't likely to cover the soft top, especially if a lot of slicing happens. If you don't have a secure place to park it overnight, be careful not to leave any valuables inside, or your Jeep might become a regular target. While you can't stop people from slashing your soft top open and rummaging around, you can (and should) look into ways to keep your Jeep your Jeep by looking into GPS tracking devices, maybe installing a kill switch, or at the very least, a steering wheel club. Especially since older Jeeps are known for being fairly easy to steal. A hard top can help keep your car more secure since it can't be sliced open or removed unless the thief is inside the Jeep, so those investments are wise regardless of what kind of top you have. Soft tops, just like a convertible top on a car, involve regular and special care. If you want to keep a soft top from fading from a nice, rich black to an unsavory gray, you have to keep up with maintenance. That means using a special brush, with a special spray, and treating it with a UV protectant to curb sun damage. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even treat it with a conditioner that helps water bead up and roll off of it to keep moisture from sticking, too. With a hard top, you don't have to worry about all that. You can wash it with the same wash you use for the chassis, and you can use the same polish and wax, too. Depending on where you live and where you're able to park it, you may have to treat the soft top more often. For example, the sun is incredibly strong in Central Oregon, so I'm sure to clean and treat the soft top with a UV protectant spray every few months, but especially in the summer. If I lived somewhere incredibly moist, like the American South, I'd regularly treat the top with waterproofing spray to keep mold and mildew at bay. That's not something you'd have to worry about with a hard top. Both tops are expensive, but hard tops are remarkably more expensive than soft tops, regardless of styling. Soft tops typically range from $800 to $2,000, depending on the brand, style, and size (for instance, a 2-door soft top would be cheaper than a 4-door soft top). Hard tops are rarely under $1,000 unless you're shopping used, and can go up to $3,500. Modular hard tops can be even pricier, with a typical price range of $2,000 to $5,000 if you want one with real glass windows. If you're into repairing things yourself, repairing a soft top is much easier than repairing anything on a hardtop. A broken window can be repaired with a kit, a tear can be repaired with a sewing kit and some dexterity, and so on. And as we've established, should it need replacing, soft tops are much cheaper to replace. If anything goes wrong with the windows on a hardtop, especially if they're glass or on sliders, it can be more expensive to repair and/or replace. Once again, we've come to an "it depends" impasse. I looked at the two different tops like sunroofs. I have a sunroof in my Forester, and I rarely, if ever, have it open. Why don't I open it? Well, mostly because I don't like the wind noise at higher speeds, and I have very fair, Irish skin that burns easily. That means that unless I carry a hair tie, a hat, and sunscreen with me at all times (which I don't), the sunroof stays closed. When I went off-roading in my Subaru or our old 1996 Land Rover, I appreciated being able to close the windows if it got too dusty or windy, as well as the security of the closed roof. Therefore, for me, a hard top makes more sense. However, since my Jeep came with a soft top and converting it to a hard top is incredibly expensive, I'll be saving up for one instead and hoping no one damages my soft top. I also like the idea of a hard top's versatility with rooftop accessories, the improved insulation if I needed to use the A/C or heater, and the comfort of safety from the weather. If you're like my husband, who fully embraces that #dustylife and loves the open-air feeling of being able to remove or fold the top, the soft top would truly set you free, especially off-road. My husband once said he may not drive with the top down all summer, but he'd like the option to, so for Jeep owners like him, a soft top makes sense. A soft top is also the most cost-effective and easiest way to own a Jeep, since you don't need a lift system or a friend to remove it. So, which is best truly depends on how you envision yourself as a Jeep owner. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
