LUCKY terrier Dan had an amazing escape after falling 120ft down a chemical pipe.

The tiny terrier faced a lingering death after falling down the 20-inch-wide shaft in a toxic waste landfill site and becoming wedged at the bottom,

But firefighters thought up an ingenious rescue plan, tying poles, a hook, weights, chimney rods and pipes together to create a huge pole.

They then made a make-shift hammock with wire mesh to fit on the end. Rescuers tied the pole to a 100ft rope and pushed it down the hole in a bid to save Dan.

They faced a race against time to save the terrier before he was overcome by the fumes in the pipe.

Dan finally got into the hammock and was heaved out of the pipe at Greenside, in Gateshead, which he fell into while out walking with his owner.

The cap that should have been on the top of the pipe had been removed by vandals and Dan's curiosity got the better of him.

Dan's owner, Barry Steele, 30, of Greenside, said the Lakeland Terrier had now been given anti-toxins.

He said: "It's a miracle he survived. He was caked in oily stuff, like chip pan fat and he was really smelly, but he's OK now, I am very grateful to the fire brigade. They did a marvellous job.

"Dan is very inquisitive. He got through a hole in the fence made by kids and fell down a ventilation pipe."

When Acting Station Officer Barry Haig arrived at the landfill site he thought Dan's chances were slim.

"There was a cocktail of all sorts of chemicals down there," he said.

"We were a bit pessimistic, but we put our heads together to try to think of a way of rescuing him."