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mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

A fire service which sent three fire engines and a rescue boat to save a trapped duck has said it was not a waste of resources.

The bird had been trapped in a drainage tunnel for five days at Earlswood Lakes, near Solihull, West Midlands, during the recent floods.

One of the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service crews was summoned from Rugby - 35 miles from the incident.

Firefighters managed to free the bird after its owner called 999.

'No other calls'

A spokeswoman denied the rescue was a waste of money and said there were no other calls to deal with at the time.

The spokeswoman said: "It's debatable whether a 999 call should have been made, but people do do it sometimes, and this is part of the service firefighters provide.

"This certainly wasn't a waste of resources. It's all a matter of prioritising which incidents to attend and it may have been that there were no other calls at the time."

She said that the firefighters would have left the duck if a more urgent call had come in.

BBC Online
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Now they have it in their bath Laughing

Cherskiy · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:54 am Post subject:

At least the fire engine didn't run over it and kill it when they were leaving. There are apochryphal stories of fire crews doing that to cats they have rescued from trees....
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RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Although the use of the 999 service was debatable, the alternative would have been the RSPCA, who would probably have called the fire service anyway.
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Ron

SantaFefan · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject:

From my experiences recently, the RSPCA wouldn't have wanted to know about it. Evil or Very Mad

I think it's great that the Duck was rescued , it's a life and I'm all for it.
I'll bet other Duck onlookers didn't throw bricks at the fire engine....

I can't imagine why three rescue tenders were needed though! Shocked

gfloyd · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject: