Two newborn puppies got themselves stuck under a large boulder on the Campo Reservation in East San Diego County yesterday, prompting a rescue that required specialized heavy-lifting gear more commonly used to free people trapped in collapsed buildings or wrecked vehicles. The disoriented pups were freed without injury and handed back to their owner and mother.
Crews from CAL FIRE/San Diego County Fire stations 44 and 47 responded to the scene, according to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Station 44 is based in Pine Valley and Station 47 is based in Boulevard, both part of Battalion 4, which covers roughly 495,000 rural acres across East San Diego County, per Alert San Diego. Firefighters used a lifting airbag pulled from the department's Urban Search and Rescue vehicle to carefully shift the boulder off the puppies, according to a CAL FIRE San Diego County Fire social media post describing the operation.
Specialized Gear Built for Tight, Heavy Lifts
The equipment involved, known as USAR 44 pneumatic lifting airbags, is designed for low-clearance situations where mechanical jacks simply cannot fit. These bags can operate at pressures up to 12 bar, generating enough force to move heavy stone or concrete while creating just enough clearance to work safely, according to Vetter Rescue Equipment. That kind of precision was necessary here, since rescuers needed to shift the boulder without harming the trapped animals underneath.
This was not the first time CAL FIRE has turned to this kind of equipment for an animal in distress. In October 2025, crews in Ramona used USAR 12 pneumatic airbags to free a three-month-old Great Pyrenees puppy named Zoe, who had become wedged between two large boulders, according to a CAL FIRE San Diego County Fire post from that rescue. Both incidents illustrate how rural East County's boulder-strewn terrain periodically turns routine calls into technical extrications.
Sovereign Land, Shared Emergency Response
The rescue unfolded on the Campo Reservation, a 16,512-acre stretch of the southern Laguna Mountains established in 1893 and home to the federally recognized Campo Band of Diegueño Mission Indians, also known as the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, according to Wikipedia. More than 350 residents live on the tribal-owned reservation. Wildland fire protection there runs through a cooperative agreement between CAL FIRE, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Pacific Region, and the local Campo Reservation Fire Protection District, per the County of San Diego, with CAL FIRE serving as the primary wildland response agency on the federal tribal trust land.
That arrangement is part of a broader structure across San Diego County, where San Diego County Fire operates through a cooperative agreement combining 32 CAL FIRE stations and 22 county-funded stations under one command, according to the San Diego County Fire Protection District. The Campo Kumeyaay Nation also runs the Golden Acorn Casino & Travel Center along Interstate 8 in Boulevard, which doubles as an emergency evacuation shelter point during East County wildfires, per Ground News. Nearby, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department maintains a Campo Substation on Sheridan Road that handles law enforcement and dispatch for Campo, Dulzura, Tecate, Potrero, and Lake Morena.
Puppies Reunited, No Injuries Reported
Once freed from beneath the boulder, both puppies were returned to their owner and mother without any injuries, according to the CAL FIRE San Diego County Fire post recounting the rescue. Battalion 4 crews also lean on La Cima Conservation Camp hand crews and specialized USAR vehicles for complex rescues across East County's steep, isolated terrain, underscoring how much technical capability rural fire stations keep on hand for calls that go well beyond structure fires.
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