Dogs, man rescued from Washougal ravine

Firefighters don’t rescue cats from trees, but on Sunday they did rescue two dogs, and their owner, from a ravine.

East County Fire and Rescue, Clark County Fire District 6, the Vancouver Fire Department and the Camas/Washougal Fire Department and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office were all involved in the difficult rescue, which took place in a ravine just east of 40112 S.E. 80th St. It all ended well.

The incident actually started around 4 p.m. Saturday when a St. Bernard and a golden retriever romped away from their home and went into the ravine, which Capt. Wes Long of East County Fire and Rescue described as having a 60-70 percent slope and heavy underbrush.

The dogs’ owners searched for them until nearly midnight, then resumed their own search-and-rescue mission on Sunday morning.

When they found the dogs, the 57-year-old Clark County resident, whose name was not released, went 190 feet down into the ravine to try to rescue the wayward pets. But he got caught, too, necessitating the call-out of the area’s special rescue teams at about 10:54 a.m.

Using ropes and four-wheel-drive vehicles, the man and the dogs were rescued from the ravine after a couple hours of work. No one was reported injured.