Parrot's Cries of 'Help, Fire' Bring Firefighters to Burning House in Idaho

[Angel4Truth]

Parrot's Cries of 'Help, Fire' Bring Firefighters to Burning House in Idaho

Emergency crews responding to a house fire in Idaho Friday night expected to find an elderly woman inside the home when they heard cries of "help" and "fire."

But after an extensive search, firefighters were only able to find two parrots — one who happened to be more verbal than the other.

Calls about the two-alarm blaze in rural Boise came into the Middleton Fire Department at about 9:30 p.m., said Victor Islas, a community relations officer for the department.

"Once the captain did his walk-around, he could hear something or someone inside yelling, 'help, fire, help, fire,'" Islas said. Crews went into "rescue mode" and called for backup, thinking that the calls for help were coming from an elderly female, Islas said.

When firefighters couldn't find anyone in the house, they started using thermal imagery technology, which detected no people, but rather, a parrot sitting on a table, Islas said.

The boisterous female parrot was rescued, along with a quieter male parrot. The female parrot was given oxygen by way of an adult oxygen mask, Islas said. She immediately perked up and started to imitate the sounds of the sirens, he said.

No one was injured in the fire, which ended up being contained to only one room in the house, according to the Middleton Fire Department.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-help-fire-coming-empty-burning-house-n344491

From another article:

Nobody human was inside the home at the time of the fire. After talking to the family, however, firefighters learned there were actually two parrots.

So they went back inside and rescued the second one.

That bird wasn't nearly as talkative however.

By the way, a bystander was the one who reported the fire.

Firefighters contained the fire to just one room.

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/loca...perience-for-middleton-firefighters/26094515/

Help and fire calls from a parrot? I wonder who or why they would have been taught that to begin with, does anyone else think this is weird, or just me?

 

[Tambora]

does anyone else think this is weird, or just me?

It's pretty weird.

 

[The Barbarian]

Apparently, parrots and a few other birds have a limited understanding of speech, and can correctly use words in meaningful ways.

Konrad Lorenz mentions an interesting example in King Solomon's Ring, of a jackdaw which did something like that.

 

[Angel4Truth]

Apparently, parrots and a few other birds have a limited understanding of speech, and can correctly use words in meaningful ways.

They still have to be taught them to begin with.

Can you think of scenerios where they would be taught to shreik "help and "fire" as well as recognize they are in that?

 

[musterion]

That's nothing. Jan Crouch had poodles she claimed spoke in tongues. They barked in an "unknown bark."

 

[The Barbarian]

They still have to be taught them to begin with.

So do humans.

Can you think of scenerios where they would be taught to shreik "help and "fire" as well as recognize they are in that?

That would be merely um, "parroting" what they were trained to do. It's rather unlikely anyone did that. The parrot had obviously heard "help!" before, and understood the context.

"Fire" would be a more interesting thing, although it's not unlikely that the parrot had heard someone comment on fire, while fire was there.

Lorenz's jackdaw was afraid of chimneysweeps, and if one approached, would fly up, and scream "the chimneysweep is coming."

That might merely be mimicking someone who had said the phrase earlier, but still required the jackdaw to know the context.