The pedestrian who saw the trapped ducklings called 911, which summoned Mifflinburg patrolman Richard Hubler, who investigated the scene and then called the Mifflinburg Hose Company.
Onlookers snapped photos and mama duck patiently watched the entire operation, said Tod Steese, fire department spokesman.
Several first responders pulled off the “extremely heavy” grate. Then, Lt. Loren Martin, a firefighter, reached down and, one by one, plucked the babies from the drain and delivered them into a waiting bag. The whole operation took about an hour, Steese said.
With the ducklings safely in the bag, Hubler took the sack to mama duck and, one by one, the little ones got in line and followed mom right out of the scene.
“They just walked away in a line like it was the most normal thing,” Steese said. “It was incredible.”
What’s more incredible, Steese said, has been the response to the story. Myriad Facebook followers gave the duckling rescue post 15,000 likes and 500 shares as of deadline Monday. Multiple media also contacted the fire company about the story, Steese said.
“It’s nice to put something out there that isn’t blood and gore,” he said. “It’s a good feeling for the guys to do something like that.”
No one knows how the ducklings got into the storm drain, Steese said, but this isn’t the first duckling rescue for the fire department.
Three to four years ago, ducklings were in a storm drain in front of the Hometown Eatery on Route 45. There was no gate in the drain to stop the ducklings from going deeper underground, Steese said, so one fire engine went to the end of the pipe while another one flushed it, floating the little ones out of the drain and back to the waiting wings of their mom.
(Daily Item - July 21, 2015)
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