Not all heroes wear capes.
They often wear reflective-striped, protective firefighting gear, like the White Rock firefighters who showed up to rescue a baby seagull from a high rooftop Tuesday (July 7) evening.
The baby gull was trapped in netting around a rooftop chimney on Magdalen Avenue early Tuesday evening, with a few locals posting about it on social media community groups.
“Desperately seeking help for baby seagull trapped in a net over chimney on roof of house across from us! Please! If anyone has a very tall ladder to help this poor baby!” the post read, suggesting a ladder at least 30 feet in height would be needed.
Several others commented on the post with helpful tips, while some shared to other local community groups on Facebook.
And as it turns out, others called the non-emergency White Rock Fire Rescue line.
White Rock Fire Rescue chief Brad Davie said they received more than one call about the baby bird in distress, so crews were dispatched to Magdalen Avenue to free the young seagull.
“Crews went down there and sure enough, they got to the residence … they put a ladder up and got up to the roof, and the owner had some netting on the roof around the chimney,” Davie said. “A baby seagull was caught in the netting and the adults were flying around it.”
White Rock firefighters freed the baby gull and called Burnaby’s Wildlife Reescue Association, but the small seagull was flying around and doing well, so it was decided they should leave the baby in the wild, in the nest that was on the roof.
So they did.
“Our heroes,” a comment inthe Facebook post stated, with a video of the firefighters showing up to free the bird.
Davie said it’s always nice to have a positive outcome, especially considering some of the things fire crews have to fae on a daily basis.
“Everybody’s hoping for a positive sense of accomplishment. It’s where you don’t have to have somebody have the worst day of their life for you to come to their aid,” he said.
“It gives them something to celebrate. It’s always nice when you can have that sense of accomplishment and help the community out one way or the other — without somebody having to have a bad day.”