Parrot Hailed Hero For Squawking 'Fire' And Alerting Family To Blaze

A family in the US has hailed their parrot a hero after he squawked 'fire' and alerted them to a blaze.

Barbara Klein, her husband Larry and their six-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn Rose Pellerin were all fast asleep in Lebanon, Tennessee, when a fire broke out in the kitchen during the early hours of 3 February.

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Fortunately for the family, pet parrot Louie apparently alerted them to the danger by squawking 'fire' - which is especially miraculous, given that he had never said the word before.

His cries were enough to wake the family and enable them to escape the house and Barbara feels they owe their lives to him.

She said: "Louie is a true hero. If it weren't for him I probably would have been sleeping during the fire.

"He started squawking 'fire'. He had never said that word before in my recollection.

"When I woke up, the fire was starting to spread across the living room floor."

After managing to escape the house, 61-year-old Larry ran back in and attempted to save Louie, their four dogs and his grandfather's guitar, but tragically they were all lost to the blaze.

Barbara said: "He ran to the kitchen and was trying to put the fire out with water.

"After we left, he ran back into the house to try to save our puppies and his grandfather's guitar.

"He kept saying he couldn't breathe and I was shouting at him to leave the house. I told him to get down and he crawled out.

"I pulled him out of the fire. Then we got in the car and drove out of the driveway."

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In his attempts to save the pets, Larry almost lost his own life and had to be airlifted to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee for urgent treatment.

Barbara said: "He burned his hands, face and nose and they had to clean his lungs out. He was put into a coma. It was a miracle he survived."

In the aftermath of the fire, the local community have rallied around the Klein's and set up a fundraiser to help them buy a new home. Among the many things they've been gifted is a new parrot, who's been named Louie Jr.

Barbara said: "The community came together and gave Kaitlyn a birthday party with 100 people invited at the McDonald's in town. Larry got out of hospital a bit early to go to the party.

"People have reached out with clothing and someone donated an apartment for three months.

"The man who donated the apartment also gave us a baby parrot as well. We call him Louie Jr."

Topics: Awesome, Birds, Weird, Animals

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey