A MID Wales police officer who saved a woman and a dog stuck 20 feet down a reservoir dam has been nominated for a bravery award.

PC Rhodri Jones has received the nod after rescuing the woman from a precarious sluiceway, who herself had retrieved her dog from an outcrop along the face of the Caban Coch Dam in the Elan Valley.

On the morning of 19 August, last year, Rhodri was dispatched to the scene after a distressed caller reported to 999 that his two Golden Retrievers had fallen over the edge of the reservoir, alongside colleague PC Peter Evans.

While one dog appeared to be deceased, the other was stranded on the outcrop, alive but badly injured. This prompted the caller’s partner to jump down onto the nearby sluice, who sustained significant face and arm injuries from the descent before managing to get a hold of the terrified dog.

“It was the usual low-key start of a Sunday morning before the call,” said Rhodri. “I don’t think the seriousness of the situation was understood at first, because the initial direction was to reassure the caller and victims and wait for Mountain Rescue.”

When it was made clear the arrival of this assistance was 45 minutes away, Rhodri and Peter contacted the Fire service in an effort to get a rescue attempt onto the scene and underway sooner.

Even the wait for the latter proved too long for the increasingly concerned cops, who knew the woman and her dog were fighting a losing battle against the prospect of an approximate 92-foot drop.

Rhodri, 45, continued: “It got to a point where we knew we couldn’t just wait it out anymore. Not only were the victims stuck on a small platform, without any room for manoeuvre, they were each struggling with their injuries.”

The officers decided to act by forcing open the door to an overflow chamber, where Rhodri lowered himself down onto the chamber’s gantry and made a leap onto the edge of the sluice, which was extremely slippery due to recent rainfall. The constable then belly-crawled along the sluiceway until he could reach the victims with a throwline, pulling the pair to a safer position.

“It was a team effort between Pete and me. He remained on the gantry handling one end of the throwline we used, while I made the decision to drop down from the gantry to the sluice.

“Not that we had a big discussion about it – we just acted as quickly and decisively as possible.”

Rhodri then waited roughly 20 minutes for the fire service to assist with extracting the victims from the position he had secured them in within the chamber. The woman is making a good recovery from her injuries, including a broken arm, while the dog was taken to the closest veterinarian for treatment.

Dyfed Powys Police Federation chair Gareth Jones said: “The way he acted with calmness, yet determination, in circumstances which must have been unbearably distressing for the victims is a true measure of bravery.”