 A golden retriever that almost drowned when she fell into the Thames near Putney Bridge
Three-year-old Luna was on a late evening stroll with owner Juan Buitrago when she lost her bearings and ended up in the drink after jumping over a low wall. Distraught Juan immediately raised the alarm and watched with baited breath as Luna struggled to stay afloat. She made her way to the riverside wall where she somehow clung onto bricks to keep her head above water. London Fire Brigade turned up but impatient Juan stripped down to his underwear and climbed down a ladder into the water to help Luna. PLA patrol boat Kew arrived a short while later, along with a Chiswick RNLI crew, and the middle district crew helped Luna and ecstatic Juan on board. They dried off a little (with help from a RNLI blanket) and were dropped at Putney Pier. Marine River Inspector Chris Healy gave the uninjured twosome a lift home. Colombian-born journalist Juan, 40, who’s lived and worked in London for 20 years, said: “I was so worried, she just seemed to jump into the water because she didn’t know the water was on the other side of the wall.
“I got frustrated waiting for someone to rescue her so I went in myself. Then the PLA guys turned up and saved the day. “I don’t want to think what might’ve happened if the boat hadn’t turned up. Juan says he’s suffered a little bit of ‘flu since the events of last month, but Luna seems ok. He’s vowed to do them both In May this year, a Jack Russell was plucked out of the river near 
and the additional craft are expected to be working on the river between March next year and April 2018. John Spencer, GPS managing director, said: “Having secured the contract to ship 1.9m tonnes of spoil from the central section of the Tideway Tunnel, we neeeded seven more barges. “This forms part of a larger programme that has seen us invest £750,000 in converting 5 of our existing 1900 series barges box hold barges into drywell hoppers and £1m on purchasing and modifying two modern Damen Stan Tug 1606s for work on the Thames. It’s great news for us and shows just how busy the tidal Thames is right now.” Eight new barges have been ordered by a tidal Thames firm, to meet the ever-increasing demands of a busy river. The new Dutch-built barges, ordered by GPS Marine, are needed to deal with extra work created by the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. GPS already has 30 in its fleet |
