Dog Saved After Falling Down Mineshaft In North Carolina

"It couldn't have gone better."

A dog who fell 20 feet into an abandoned mineshaft is safe at home after a dramatic rescue in North Carolina.

The dog - a Beagle mix named Jackson - had gotten out of his cage and “was chasing something and ran the wrong way,” Gold Hill, North Carolina Fire Captain Shane Wise told SouthernLiving.com.

Gold Hill is 50 miles northeast of Charlotte. In the early 1800s it was a gold mining boom town. Inoperable mineshafts still exist around town.

Jackson’s owner had attempted the rescue the night before but realized he needed professional help. Wise said his fire department first responded to the call and faced similar challenges. Other nearby departments with more equipment were called in.

Among those departments was a group of Queen City rescue squad students who were participating in a confined space class that day.

In a case of coincidence - or extremely good luck - the students had just set up for this exact scenario less than a half hour prior.

Though they couldn’t actually perform the rescue, they “knew where everything was on the trucks that they needed,” Wise said.

Crews rigged ropes to an A-frame tripod and lowered rescuers into the shaft to retrieve the dog.

The entire operation - part of which was livestreamed on the department's Facebook page - took about an hour.

Jackson was uninjured despite the fall.

“He came up the hole running around and wagging its tail and loving on everybody,” Wilson said.

Wise said the rescue was a coordinated effort that involved several departments but he is pleased with the way it went down.

"It couldn’t have gone any better," Wise said.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.