Lifeboat crew later reunited the owner with his pet

A dogwalker had a lucky escape following a fall into the fast-flowing river Thames in Chiswick.

The man, aged in his sixties, fell into the cold river water shortly after 5pm on Wednesday (15 January), while walking along the tow path with his dog on the south bank of the Thames at Chiswick.

RNLI lifeboat crew plucked him to safety after the alarm was raised.

Good Samaritans on a passing motorboat, a rowing coach’s launch, heard the man’s cries for help and went to his aid. Despite their best efforts they couldn’t lift him out of the river, so they held onto him to stop him being washed downstream.

Chiswick RNLI lifeboat crew quickly arrived and pulled the dog walker from the water. They took him to Chiswick Pier where an ambulance was waiting to take him to Charing Cross Hospital.

Easy the dog made some new friends at Chiswick RNLI

Lifeboat Helm Rob Archibald said: “When we got to this guy he was in a pretty precarious situation. He was cold and had been in the water for a while. The people in the motorboat couldn’t haul him out of the river so they held onto him until we pulled him to safety.

“He was concerned about his dog and we could hear it barking. So after taking him safely to shore we went back, found the dog and took him back to the lifeboat station.”

The crew looked after the dog, called Easy, during the evening before his owner came back to collect him after being released from hospital. They were delighted to be reunited.

Easy investigates the biscuit tin at the RNLI headquarters

It was the second launch that day for the local crew. Earlier the same day, the Chiswick RNLI lifeboat team were called upon to assist a rower whose boat had capsized on the south side of the river, opposite Chiswick Pier.

The man was pulled aboard the charity’s lifeboat and given first aid before he and his boat were taken to ashore to London Rowing Club.

Earlier in the week the local RNLI rescued a woman who had fallen into the water at Chiswick Bridge and floated downstream towards Barnes. You can read that story here

January 16, 2014