Fire crews in Idaho were baffled when, after running into a burning home to save whoever was trapped inside, they heard cries of “Help!” and “Fire!” but couldn’t find any humans to carry out.
The perfectly normal reason why? It wasn’t a human crying out, but a particularly verbal parrot. One of a pair of parrots, it’s worth noting.
Said Victor Islas, a community relations officer for the Middleton ID Fire Department, “The captain did his walk-around, [and] could hear something or someone inside yelling, ‘help, fire, help, fire.'” From there, the crew went into “rescue mode,” called for backup, and prepared to enter the blaze.
Based on the voice, the firefighters expected to find an elderly female. But there was no one…human…in the house.
After the visual search came up empty, the firefighters retreated to the front lawn, where they scanned the house with a thermal imager. (Just as a quick aside: That is really a pretty cool thing to be able to do. It’s Bond villain technology, but placed in the right hands! Well done, firefighters of Middleton Idaho.)
The thermal scan revealed two parrots sitting on a table. The female of the pair was the one shouting out. The male of the pair, evidently convinced that his mate had the situation well under control, said nothing.
The parrots appeared to be dazed by the smoke, so, after firefighters took them outside, they (the firefighters) began giving the pair oxygen from a human-sized oxygen mask. The parrots immediately perked up, and the female began imitating the sirens on the fire truck.
The fire itself was contained to one room in the house and quickly put out.
The names of the parrots were protected for privacy reasons.
Crew quickly extinguish fire in Middleton. Fire is out, no injuries reported. @starfiredist @CFDPIO pic.twitter.com/sSy4jp76GP
— Middleton Fire (@Midfire) April 18, 2015
(Photo credits: Parrot One; Parrot Two)
