No, we don't get cats out of trees, but occasionally people and birds

I had a feeling this morning that today would turn out to be an interesting shift. We started out the shift with a structure fire in a neighboring engine's first due. It was literally right down the block from their station. An unattended candle caught the closet on fire and charred a bit of the wall and ceiling of the bedroom. The engine made a great stop on the fire and held the damage to a relatively small area. The truck treated the homeowner for smoke inhalation and burns to the hands, and helped with salvage of the room's contents, and overhaul.

Afterwards were dispatched to several pretty uneventful calls throughout the day. Then, at dinner time, we got a walk in request for a service detail. A few blocks away from our station, kid had become stuck in a tree after trying to retrieve his escaped parrot. We arrived on scene to find the kid about 30' up in the tree, in a harness jury rigged out of a tow strap, clipped to the end of a winch. Yes, you read that correctly. He and the friend had taken the end of the winch from his friend's SUV, thrown it over a branch and hoisted the kid up into the tree. The cable had cut into the bark of the tree and become bound up, so that they were unable to lower him back down to the ground.

My engineer's set up the aerial ladder on the truck, allowing me to climb up, unbind the cable and put a little more slack in the line. I back down so they could reposition the ladder to the other side of the tree, allowing me to make access to the kid. I tied a chest harness out of webbing around myself, climbed back up and clipped my ladder belt into the top rung of the ladder. Once clipped in I was positioned too low, so the engineer at the ladder turn table had to raise the ladder up a bit, allowing me to tie another chest harness around the kid. I then clipped his harness into my harness with a carabiner. This was a safety measure in case he slipped trying to get on the ladder. He was now attached to me, and I was attached to the ladder. My engineer very carefully lowered the ladder about a foot to make it easier for him to step onto the ladder. I assisted him onto the ladder, unclipped him from the winch and then guided him down to the ground.

Once on the ground his mom pleaded with us to try to get the bird which was still on a branch higher up in the tree. Normally, we wouldn't respond for this type of call, but since we were already on scene, my chief made an exception this time. She told the mom that we would give it one shot if we could do it safely, and made sure she knew that we were still in service, so if a fire or medical call came in in our area, we would have to pack up and go.

Surprisingly the bird stayed perched on its branch as we repositioned the truck to the other side of the tree,and re-raised the ladder. One of the engine engineers climbed the ladder with a corn cob and plastic bag and made his way toward the bird. After a bit he was able to grab the bird, put it in the plastic bag and climb back down the ladder, to reunite it with its family.

Here's the kicker. When he rescued the bird, cheers erupted throughout the crowd in the park. When I rescued the kid, dead silence. Not a peep. That's okay, though. Once back at the station, my captain made a medal for me by writing "I DUD GOOD" on a post it note and sticking it to my sweatshirt.


For an update on this call see the following post

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/08/thank-goodness-for-small-favors.html