A teenager and his dog are safe and recovering, a day after they got trapped in a garden well on his family’s property in North Yarmouth.

Kevin Lovenstein said Daisy, the family’s 3-year-old beagle, was chasing a chipmunk Monday night and jumped on the cover of an abandoned well. The lid collapsed and Daisy fell about 20 feet into a pool of water.

“She was drowning,” said Lovenstein, who lives on Greely Road with his wife, Eileen.

He yelled to his wife to call 911. At that point, Lovenstein’s 18-year-old son, Gerrick, ran out of the house.

“He saw a handle on the side of the well (near the bottom), and he went right in,” Lovenstein said.

Gerrick Lovenstein went down into the well, grabbed the dog and held on to the handle while balancing the dog on his shoulders and head to keep it out of the water. The water came up to his chest.

Lovenstein estimates that his son must have been in the well for at least 30 minutes before emergency workers from North Yarmouth, Yarmouth and Cumberland arrived. The call for help was made around 6:15 p.m.

According to firefighters, methane gas levels in the well were dangerously high, Lovenstein said.

Rescue workers rigged up a couple of ladders, which they used to reach the boy and his dog.

Gerrick Lovenstein was taken to Mercy Hospital in Portland, where he was treated for hypothermia and released Monday night.

After taking a shower, he was resting comfortably at home, despite claw scratches to his face and neck.

Daisy, who was given a bath, was also doing well.

Lovenstein said he plans to install a cap on the well, and hopes that Daisy has learned her lesson about chasing rodents.

 

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com

 

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