Woman, dog rescued from car that plunged into Laguna de Santa Rosa tributary

A woman and her dog were rescued by firefighters Friday night after she drove off a bridge on private property and wound up trapped in her car nearly vertical in chest-deep water with the passenger compartment partially submerged, a Santa Rosa fire official said.

Firefighters responding about 9:15 p.m. found the car had dropped about ?10 feet into a tributary of the Laguna de Santa Rosa in the 3200 block of Guerneville Road and was in an unstable position, Battalion Chief Mark Basque said in a statement.

Rescuers first used chains and cable to stabilize and secure the rear of the car to the bridge, and at the woman’s request removed the dog from the car first. The dog was uninjured and was handed to a friend of the woman at the scene, he said.

At the same time, two Santa Rosa fire swift water rescuers went into the flowing creek and placed the woman on a floating rescue board, guiding it across the creek to a ladder, Basque said.

The woman was helped up the ladder, placed in an ambulance and taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with injuries that did not appear to be ?nonlife-threatening injuries, he said.

The rescue operation took about 25 minutes. Crews from the Santa Rosa, Graton and Rincon Valley fire departments were involved in the rescue.