Woman, dog rescued from Arizona canal after 18-hour ordeal

PHOENIX – A woman spent about 18 hours in a southwestern Arizona canal last week after she got stuck trying to rescue her dog, authorities said.

First responders pulled them out of the water around noon Wednesday in a rescue captured on video by the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and posted to social media.

The woman told authorities she’d been in the water since about 6:30 p.m. the previous day.

She said she was letting her dog run around the desert area near Highway 80 and Avenue 22E and wasn’t aware there was a canal nearby. The dog got into the water and couldn’t get out, so she went in to help and found herself stuck in the concrete-lined canal, which has steep walls.

The conductor of a passing train spotted the woman the next day and called 911.

YCSO deputies and officers from the Wellton Police Department responded and used a long strap to haul the exhausted woman out of the canal.

The body-worn camera footage that YCSO posted to Facebook on Friday didn’t show how the dog got out. The animal was already on land at the beginning of the video.

“We want to thank everyone involved in assisting with this rescue, including the train conductor who spotted the subject in the water and called 911,” the Facebook post said.

The woman was taken to Yuma Regional Medical Center for treatment but neither she nor the dog appeared to have critical injuries, YCSO said.

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