Raccoon Freed By Firefighters After it Got its Head Stuck in a Sewer Grate

Firefighters are rightly considered heroes to men and women across the U.S., but one fire department may have another fan after they spent two hours trying to free a raccoon from a sewer grate.

According to Capt. Eric Fricke, of the Newton Fire Department, firefighters were dispatched on Thursday (August 1), to a residential area in Newton, Massachusetts after a call came in describing the poor raccoon's plight. The caller, a bicyclist who was on their way to work, spotted the struggling animal, its head caught in between the steel slats.

"We sent our rescue company," Fricke told The Washington Post. "They have the tools and expertise for freeing people from things."

Rescuers believed it would be a simple matter of getting the animal soapy or slippery enough so that it could wiggle its way free, something that works "99 percent of the time" according to Capt. Fricke. However, things did not go as easily as firefighters hoped.

"Always willing to help out our 4 legged friends!" the Newton Fire Department tweeted, noting that the raccoon's rescue had been, "quite the operation."

"We were able to rescue a juvenile raccoon today with help from Waltham’s Animal Control," the department wrote. "He had been stuck for a while but we are happy to report he is free!!"

Firefighters first tried lathering up the animal native to North America with soap and water, hoping the slickness would help free the poor animal with a bit of tugging. However, the now frantic animal covered in soap bubbles, was lodged in the sewer grate and couldn't get free.

Rescuers decided a more dramatic approach was needed and removed the entire grate from the road, re-positioning it on a patch of grass nearby. When an ambulance in the area stopped by to see the scene, the firefighters were inspired to try a trick used to remove rings from a swollen finger. The technique involves tightly wrapping a piece of dental floss around the finger to compress it, allowing the ring to slip off. Looking at the sewer grate as a ring, rescuers swaddled the raccoon in medical dressing, hoping to make its body small enough to pop through the grate, but that didn't work either.

Finally, the department called in the experts. An animal control officer from a nearby town arrived with a veterinarian to help rescue the poor animal, who by now, had been stuck for a while.

Fricke says the animal was sedated by the veterinarian, so it could relax and firefighters were able to free it from the sewer grate.

Waltham Animal Control took the raccoon back for observation and plan on releasing it back into the wild once the sedation wears off and a vet determines the animal is healthy enough.

"Everybody’s just happy that there was a positive outcome and they were able to get him out," Fricke said. "Hopefully, he will recover and be off and live his life."

Photo: Newton Fire Department