Rescuing kittens from trees, catching wild bears with trampolines and having to deal with drunken naked people – firefighters do all sorts of weird jobs that have nothing to do with actual fires. As of last week, they can also add rescuing parrots from car grilles to that list.
According to he Riverine Herald, the bird is a corella, which is a white version of a cockatoo that's native to Australia. It was discovered by the owner of a Mazda CX-9 SUV right after he had parked the vehicle upon arriving at work that day.
It was struck behind the grille, wedged next to the radiator. Surprisingly, it survived a 5 kilometer (3 mile) journey, despite the heat and the battering wind. The bird didn't crawl under there like a cat would. The owner of the car says he hit the bird while driving, but it miraculously survived the impact and was relatively unscathed.
Members of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) were then forced to crawl under the nose of the car and carefully remove the frightened bird. It had suffered in injury to its leg as a result of the crash, but otherwise it was in good health.
"After being removed from the clutches of the Zoom Zoom SUV, the cockatoo was placed on a cardboard box and rushed to a nearby vet. We opened up the bonnet and the bird was sitting upright beside the radiator staring straight back up at us. It appeared to have an injured leg but otherwise was ok. It was just remarkable it had survived. We have attended a few rescues for animals in trees, but this isn't something you see every day," said Firefighter Paul Nicoll.
It was struck behind the grille, wedged next to the radiator. Surprisingly, it survived a 5 kilometer (3 mile) journey, despite the heat and the battering wind. The bird didn't crawl under there like a cat would. The owner of the car says he hit the bird while driving, but it miraculously survived the impact and was relatively unscathed.
Members of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) were then forced to crawl under the nose of the car and carefully remove the frightened bird. It had suffered in injury to its leg as a result of the crash, but otherwise it was in good health.
"After being removed from the clutches of the Zoom Zoom SUV, the cockatoo was placed on a cardboard box and rushed to a nearby vet. We opened up the bonnet and the bird was sitting upright beside the radiator staring straight back up at us. It appeared to have an injured leg but otherwise was ok. It was just remarkable it had survived. We have attended a few rescues for animals in trees, but this isn't something you see every day," said Firefighter Paul Nicoll.
#CFA crew very cocky after freeing trapped bird from behind car grille in #Echuca http://t.co/1m7o0HjRfj @CFA_Updates pic.twitter.com/HeS1RORBkh
— Rod Case (@bgoaddy_editor) April 22, 2015