Dog rescued after clinging to ledge 40 feet below Fort Funston cliff

A brown-and-white dog that slipped off a seaside bluff at Fort Funston in San Francisco on Tuesday was rescued after spending more than 20 minutes clinging to a narrow ledge about 40 feet below the cliff top, officials said. Firefighters rigged a low-angle rope system, a rescuer rappelled down the sandy face, secured a harness to the roughly 40-pound, 18-kilogram animal and brought both to safety just before midday on Oct. 28.

Rescue Captain Samuel Menchaca of the San Francisco Fire Department said the dog had been playing with another dog when it slipped on vegetation and tumbled over the edge. A police drone operator who was nearby heard the emergency call, located the animal and relayed aerial imagery to firefighters, officials said. Those images helped crews pinpoint the dog’s position on a narrow ledge about 40 feet down from the bluff’s rim.

Crews from Station 19 near Stonestown carried out a low-angle rescue, using high-angle rigging to lower a firefighter to the ledge, attach a harness and lift the rescuer and the dog back to the top of the bluff. Menchaca described the animal’s behavior after the rescue: "He was happy. He knew he got rescued. He was wagging his tail. He...