Oversized load: Firefighters tote trapped moose from Alaskan basement
SOLDOTNA, Alaska – An uninvited guest created quite the spectacle Sunday in Soldotna, Alaska, and it took six men to haul the hooved intruder out of his subterranean hideout.
Capt. Josh Thompson with Central Emergency Services on the Kenai Peninsula confirmed to The Associated Press that his team received a request from Alaska Wildlife Troopers to help extricate a moose from a basement.
“It looks like the moose had been trying to eat some vegetation by the window well of a basement window and fell into it, and then fell into the basement through the glass,” Thompson said.
Soldotna is about 150 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Kenai Peninsula firefighter Gunnar Romatz was one of seven Central Emergency Services firefighters dispatched to the scene, alongside three biologists from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and two Alaska wildlife troopers at around 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
“Like any curious human being, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really want to be there for this because there’s no way anybody’s gonna believe this,’” Romatz told the Anchorage Daily News.
“I can’t even believe it,” he added.
After one of the biologists tranquilized the moose, estimated to be a 1-year-old bull weighing at least 500 pounds, responders worked quickly to slip a transport tarp – typically used as a stretcher for larger human patients – underneath the stunned animal. It then took six of them to hoist the moose and carry it outdoors.
“He was still looking around and sitting there. He just wasn’t running around,” Thompson said.
According to the Daily News, a biologist treated the moose for minor lacerations on the back of its legs sustained from falling through the window and then administered a reversal agent for the tranquilizer.
“He got up and took off,” Thompson said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The moose returned to the wild after a biologist from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game administered a reversal agent for the tranquilizer used to temporarily subdue the animal.
Responding firefighters believe the moose fell into the basement through a window while eating nearby vegation.
A young moose fell into the basement of a home in Soldotna, Alaska, on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022.
Emergency workers stand around the moose before carrying it out of the basement.
Firefighters and other emergency workers carry a roughly 500-pound moose out of a basement in Alaska on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022.
Central Emergency Services responders, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Alaska Fish and Game biologists take a picture with a moose they rescued in Soldotna on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022.
