Contributed Photos: Safford Fire Chief Clark Bingham exits a drainage culvert with the stuck goat.
By Jon Johnson
“In all my years I’ve never had to rescue a goat,” Safford Fire Chief Clark Bingham
GRAHAM COUNTY – Some firefighters rescue cats out of trees . . . ho-hum, been there, seen that. But in Safford, its fire department goes above in the line of duty and below ground as well.
That was put to the test Monday when the fire department was dispatched at about 4:50 p.m. to an address off S. Wagon Wheel Road when a family’s goat got stuck in the middle of a drainage culvert.
“How does a goat get in a culvert,” Bingham asked. “I was dumbfounded. I mean, what do you do with that?”
Bingham said they were going to wait and see if the goat would make its way out itself eventually, but the concern of a young boy for the goat prodded him to take action.
The 18-to-20-inch culvert was so small Bingham had to go in arms first because there was not enough room for him to move them from his side to the front. He then wiggled 20 feet to the stuck goat and placed a rope lasso given to him by a deputy over the goat’s head. Bingham then wiggled his way 20 feet backward while pulling the goat.
“I backed myself out pulling on the rope and she came out,” he said. “She wanted out and she could’ve just crawled herself out but I guess she was frightened and didn’t know what to do.”
The effort was fruitful and Bingham returned the goat to its family.
“In all my years, I never had to rescue a goat,” Bingham said.
