ANTHONY CONGI and ZACHARY KINEKE, WIVB BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - First responders staged a daring late-night rescue, plucking two women and their pets from the rain-swollen Cazenovia Creek.
It was a scary scene, under a bridge in Cazenovia Creek, when the rushing current and rising waters caught two homeless women by surprise. A passerby noticed the two women and called 911.
Buffalo Fire Department Division Chief John Mogavero described the rescue, “We did have the water rising, it was raining pretty heavily as everyone knows, we had all those storms rolling in. So, water levels started to rise, they started to be in extreme danger.”
When rescuers reached the women, and lowered a ladder down, they found that the women also had pets with them.
“In addition to the two of them, they had a couple of cats with them for some strange reason, so we had to get the cats up. so we put the cat in the bag so to speak, and we lifted them up separately,” Mogavero said.
The rescue was extremely dangerous, with limited space to work with, and tricky conditions, but crews were able to pull the women up and make sure they were OK.
“When you see a couple of young adults down there like that, trying to just get out of the weather, it's sad, but that was the situation we were presented with,” said Mogavero.
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