Puppies rescued from the cold St. Lawrence River by a Brockville divemaster

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A “courageous” dive master’s quick action saved the life of a puppy who fell into the river at Centen Park Wednesday night.

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The fire chief who responded to the incident praised Helen Cooper, owner of the Dive Brockville Adventure Center, for acting at the right time.

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“Helen has made our job much easier,” said Fire Chief Craig Mason.

Chelsea Marco was at Centine Park with Flanker, a 6-month-old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Flanker needed to run and there was no one else in the park, so she made him chase a snowball quite far from the edge of the river.

However, when she was ready to go, Flanker somehow wandered off.

“I saw his little feet over the edge,” Marco recalls.

“I ran there and saw darkness.”

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Marco kept screaming for help for what felt like an eternity.

“I kept calling and then called 911.”

Using my phone’s flashlight, I was relieved to see my puppy still swimming in the river. However, no one knew they were there at the time, so it would have caused trouble for her to go there herself.

Meanwhile, Cooper rushes to Centine Park to take pictures of passing ships. She runs her Facebook page for local ship watchers and missed the chance to snap Bulk Carrier Rt. book. Paul J. Martin downriver past Blockhouse Island.

She arrived at Centine on time and took a photo of the lit up Paul Martin.

“I thought I heard someone screaming for help when I got back to the truck,” Cooper said.

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At first she ignores the noise because the kids are fooling around, but when she sits in the truck looking at the pictures, she hears the noise again and decides to check it out.

“She[Marco]said, ‘My puppy fell into the water and I don’t know how to get him out,'” recalls Cooper.

Cooper knew he didn’t have time to wait. As her Divemaster, she had first responder training and that training was on her mind.

“I was trying to think of all those things while walking down the ladder,” she said.

The river is low at this time, Cooper said, and estimated he had dropped 12 feet (about 12 feet) down the ladder.

Once there, she knew she had to grab the ladder. With the help of Marco’s light, she saw Flanker.

“He was swimming towards me and I just reached out.”

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Cooper managed to grab the scruff and pull the puppy to her.

“He was shivering, he was so cold.”

Here Cooper faced a new predicament. She couldn’t keep her hands off the ladder, but she had to lift her dog up somehow. She managed to hold the ladder with one leg while grabbing the flanker, but shouted to Marco that she needed help getting up.

The ladder was frozen. I wasn’t wearing gloves,” Cooper said.

By then, a man had come from a nearby executive apartment and offered to help him down the ladder, but firefighters had arrived on the scene.

Mason, who arrived first, climbed down the ladder. With the help of other firefighters, Mason brought Flanker to the surface before helping Cooper climb.

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“He (Flanker) was a good swimmer,” Cooper said. “He’s been swimming for a while. Bless him.”

Mason huddled behind Cooper to support her. At that point, she could no longer feel her hand on the ladder, so she thanked her for her help.

Cooper said Thursday he was grateful that he stopped by to check out his photos. Without it, he would not have heard Marco’s cries for help.

“I was just lucky,” she said. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

Marko co-owns Top Office Products with her husband, Bruce Hiscock, and Flanker is a popular figure at work on California Avenue. She believes the pup was in the water for about five minutes.

Marco has nothing but praise for Cooper.

“She threw off her coat as she ran and without hesitation went to the nearby ladder and started down,” Marco recalls.

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“She is a very good Samaritan and courageous.”

Marco also praised the quick response of the firefighters who quickly wrapped Flanker in a blanket.

Mason said Thursday that maneuvering ladders was part of his training and that it started when he reacted.

The fire chief admitted that he wasn’t quite sure this story would work when he got off.

Marco said the incident would make him even more cautious in such situations. Dog owners should get lighted vests when walking their pets in the dark, Mason said.

“Once they have their noses on the ground,” he added, it doesn’t take long for young dogs to wander off.

“Puppies are puppies. I have puppies,” Mason said.

Rzajac@postmedia.com