An Australian man said he survived a house fire that night due to his pet parrot which had startled him out of bed. At the time, Anton Nguyen is said to be asleep when his two-story house caught fire in Brisbane, Queensland, on Wednesday.
“I heard a bang and Eric – my parrot – he started to yell so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke,” Nguyen said.
“I grabbed Eric, opened the door and looked to the back of the house and saw some flames … and so I took off and bolted downstairs,” he added.
By the time the fire brigade arrived around 01:00 local time (14:00 GMT Tuesday), the house was on fire. A total of four crews prevented the fire that broke out in the suburb of Kangaroo Point from spreading. They took about 1 hour to put out the fire.
According to Nguyen who lives alone, he managed to save himself with a bag and his pet parrot. He also did not have any injuries as a result of the incident.
According to Queensland Fire and Emergency Services inspector Cameron Thomas, the green parrot had repeatedly yelled ‘Anton’ to raise the alarm.
“There were smoke detectors (but) the bird alerted before the smoke detectors went off,” Thomas said.
The cause of the fire is still unknown and is still under investigation.
Source: BBC