Five puppies who were trapped in a submerged car in rising floodwaters after their owner was rescued have all escaped uninjured after the terrifying ordeal.
Emergency services were called to a flooded area of Kangaroo Valley, near the NSW Southern Highlands yesterday after a car had been swept off a causeway in strong torrents.
While professionals managed to safely retrieve the driver from the bonnet of the car, it was deemed too dangerous for ground crews or the chopper to go back for the puppies from the side of the river they were on.
Luckily a small group of locals who heard all the commotion stepped in and executed their own rescue mission to safely get all five puppies out of the submerged car.
Jamie Salkeld told Today they had to wait until the water started to subside before they could get to the puppies, but once they reached the car the puppies "were very happy" to see them.
"We were pretty stoked. We had concerns for the guy, but we knew he got winched out by the chopper and rescue crews," Jamie told Today.
"But we had concerns for the dogs left in the car. There was potential the car could've been washed away and we couldn't live with ourselves if we left the dogs in the car."
Steven Greenhill told Today the water was full on and they didn't want to wait incase the car did take off down the river with the puppies still inside.
"The water was raging pretty hard. It was pretty high and that didn't sit well with me, so we came up with a plan and I went home and grabbed my harness and some ropes and we rigged up a set-up and tied off to my buggy with a couple of ropes," he said.
"I waded into the water, tied off to the car and we used a little trolley set-up with a dog cage to bring the puppies back over two at a time."
Driver rescued in 'superhuman' response
Damien Cutmore from the NSW Rural Fire Service told Today when the rescue team first flew in via chopper and saw what they were facing it "seemed like it might be impossible" for a successful retrieval.
"We got over the top and thankfully the planets aligned," Damien told Today.
"We had a bit of an opening through some branches that we could get down to the vehicle so between the pilot and the crewmen, they did an amazing job getting me onto the bonnet and from there I got the harness onto the gentleman and then we lifted him up out of the incident."
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Chad Wallace from the NSW Fire and Rescue was part of the rescue effort on the ground and said it was "superhuman" what everyone was able to do to retrieve the driver safely.
"The pressure was on because we're thinking, 'how are we going to get this person out?'" Chad told Today.
"When the rescue helicopter came in and hovered above and it was a sight for sore eyes, not just for the victim but for us, because it was life and death.
"It was seconds from tragedy and we've all seen so much in the last two months. We've seen some traumatic events and it was so good, finally, to see this."