Firefighters extricated horse after brutal storm rips through Ottawa

The winds howled through the nation’s capital on Tuesday evening as a storm ripped across the province, bringing power outages and toppling a structure.

Firefighters were called to about 50 calls throughout the afternoon on April 29, due to the storm, including one where they needed to remove a trapped horse.

Crews said they went to the southeast corner of the city, in the 8000 block of Russell Road, around 4:22 p.m.

When they arrived, they found a horse trapped and injured under a shelter after high winds blew it over. A veterinarian was called to sedate the horse due to the risk of the horse kicking while crews were trying to extricate it from underneath.

Firefighters stuffed bags and hydraulic jacks to lift the structure up and place cribbing underneath.

From there, they put anchor straps over the animal’s legs to pull it out by 5:09 p.m.

Teams were able to clear the scene by 5:46 p.m. and left the horse in the care of the veterinarian and owner.

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Temperatures rose on Tuesday, prompting widespread warnings from Environment Canada. The weather agency said hail and a risk of a tornado were possible, but instead, Ottawa felt the high winds.

Gusts peaked close to 100 km/h at the height of the storm, damaging trees and some properties.

Overnight temperatures dropped and are resting around seasonal on Wednesday morning.