Fresh Off Emergency Calls Involving Fatalities, Firefighters Happy To Rescue Ducklings
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Firefighters in Colorado Springs pulled seven ducklings from a storm drain Friday morning.
The rescue lifted their own spirits in the process.
"We're happy how that turned out," said Lt. Rick Schmidt.
Schmidt and his Truck 9 crew had two previous calls that included fatalities. A successful operation involving down-covered babies reversed the mood.
"A woman saw them go down the storm drain as she drove by," Schmidt said.
The woman called the non-emergency dispatch number at 8 a.m. and met the Colorado Springs Fire Department crew at the intersection of Austin Bluffs Parkway and Nevada Avenue.
"Mother duck, the hen, was squawking nearby," Schmidt said. She had two ducklings with her, but it wasn't difficult to understand her predicament.
"You could hear (the other ducklings) down inside the storm drain."
The firefighters removed manhole covers 40 feet apart, donned safety gear, and crawled inside the lines "pinching" toward the ducklings from either direction.
All seven were retrieved and reunited with mother and siblings at a nearby pond.
A happy ending, but Schmidt asked human residents to be wary of storm drains. Good outcomes are not guaranteed.
"Storm drains are nothing to mess around with," he said, "especially with thunderstorms rapidly developing" this tie of year.
