Perhaps the only sound more annoying than an overly sensitive fire alarm — triggered by the slightest waft of burnt grease — is that of an incessantly chittering and mocking parrot.
But when flames come tearing through your home, only one sort of racket can alert you by name.
“Anton!” cried Eric, the common pet parrot cared for by Anton Nguyen. The former homeowner might have lost his two-story house in Queensland, Australia, to fire Wednesday morning, but his life was spared thanks to the shrewdly squawking bird.
“I heard a bang and Eric, my parrot — he started to yell, so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke,” recalled Nguyen, who reportedly lives alone.
Talking to reporters for the Australian Broadcasting Corp., he continued, “I grabbed Eric, opened the door and looked to the back of the house and saw some flames … and bolted downstairs.”
His home was already engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived at the scene around 2 a.m. Four crews spent over an hour containing the blaze in the Brisbane suburb, Kangaroo Point.
Most homes are required by law to have installed functioning smoke alarms, but the justifiably flappable Eric proved to be a compelling substitute.
“There were smoke detectors, [but] the bird alerted me before the smoke detectors went off,” said Nguyen, who said he managed to escape with a bag of possessions.
Queensland fire officials confirmed to ABC News that the blaze had been contained to Nguyen’s home, and they are still investigating the cause.