Fire crew’s heated exchange with parrot
FIREFIGHTERS know only too well the stress that an emergency rescue can cause and are no doubt familiar with the odd foul-mouthed tirade – but they would not expect abuse from an errant pet parrot.
A London Fire Brigade (LFB) team was called to rescue Jessie, a turquoise and yellow macaw, after it had spent three days stuck on the roof of a house in Edmonton, north London.
The animal had escaped from its home nearby and the RSPCA called in the emergency services yesterday morning after they and the bird’s owners were unable to coax it down.
Chris Swallow, the LFB watch manager who attended the scene, said: “Jessie had been on the same roof for three days and there were concerns that it may be injured which is why it hadn’t come down.”
The fire crew quickly sent a volunteer up a ladder with a bowl of food and a fluffy white towel to rescue the bird, complete with instructions from the bird’s owners to tell it “I love you” to encourage it down.
Efforts by Green Watch to charm the misbehaving bird seemed to go smoothly at first, and the macaw responded positively, telling the would-be rescuer that it loved him back.
But Jessie then launched a tirade of four-letter abuse against the fire crew, telling them to “f--- off ”.
“We then discovered that she had a bit of a foul mouth and kept swearing, much to our amusement,” said Mr Swallow. The parrot and its unnamed owner also speak Turkish and Greek, so the crew also tried to coax it down using both of those languages.
Thankfully, it soon became apparent that the macaw was uninjured as it flew off to another roof and then on to a tree before finally being reunited with its owner.
The LFB has repeatedly called on members of the public not to dial 999 when a pet becomes trapped because of the increasing numbers of call-outs it receives, but it made an exception for the RSPCA.
A parrot is not the most unusual animal that the service has been called out for – in May 2008 it turned out to rescue an iguana from a roof in Tower Hamlets, and in January 2010 a chimpanzee got itself trapped in a chimney. Three months earlier, crews were called to save a kitten which had wedged its head inside a bongo drum. Last month, Devon Fire and Rescue was criticised for dispatching 15 firefighters and two engines to rescue a seagull perched on a church roof.
The bird flew off when the crews arrived at the church in Honiton, but the call-out was reported to have cost up to £1,000.
Last night, the LFB called on members of the public only to contact emergency services to deal with trapped animals if the RSPCA had been unable to help.
“As with this incident, the RSPCA should be contacted in the first instance and we would always urge people to do the same if they see an animal stuck or in distress. If the RSPCA require our assistance, they will call us and we are happy to assist with our specialist equipment,” said a spokesman.