Firefighters in northern Poland have carried out an unusual rescue after a wild boar became trapped in a private backyard swimming pool and was unable to climb out. Volunteers from the Subkowy fire brigade eventually lifted the animal to safety using fire hoses before it was taken away and released back into the wild.
The incident happened at a property in Wielgłowy, a village in the Subkowy municipality of Pomeranian Voivodeship, on 28 September.
Firefighters received the call at around 11:00 after the boar ended up in the garden pool and found itself unable to overcome the steep, slippery walls.
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The animal could swim, but swimming was not the problem.
Before rescuers arrived, the property owner partially drained the pool in an attempt to help the boar and reduce the danger to it. The animal was still unable to escape without assistance.
Fire hoses became an improvised rescue sling
Volunteer firefighters from OSP Subkowy were called to the property.
With a frightened wild boar potentially dangerous to anyone approaching it at close range, the team had to find a way of moving the animal while keeping both rescuers and the boar safe.
Their solution was equipment normally associated with an entirely different type of emergency: fire hoses.
The firefighters manoeuvred the hoses around the animal and used them as flexible lifting straps to raise it from the pool.
Senior Captain Michał Myrda, spokesman for the district State Fire Service in Tczew, said the boar remained calm enough that the operation did not require a veterinarian or sedatives.
The animal was not injured.
After being removed from the pool, it was handed to a representative of a local hunting association, taken to a suitable location and released into the forest.
An unusual call even for firefighters
Polish fire brigades regularly respond to incidents involving animals as well as fires, road accidents and other emergencies.
Myrda said rescuers more commonly encounter situations such as deer caught in fences or livestock trapped in agricultural infrastructure. A wild boar stranded in a garden swimming pool, however, was considerably less routine.
Photographs released by OSP Subkowy and reproduced by TVP Gdańsk show the boar standing in the pool during the operation and firefighters working around the edge.
The rescue also provided a reminder that encounters between people and wild boar are not limited to forests or remote countryside.
Wielgłowy lies in the Tczew district south of Gdańsk, an area combining villages, agricultural land and woodland where wildlife can move close to homes.
In this case, the unexpected visitor suffered no lasting harm.
After its unplanned swim and an improvised lift from the pool, the boar was returned to the wild — leaving the Subkowy volunteers with one of their more unusual rescue calls.
