Alert Pet Parrot Beats Smoke Detector To Help Man Escape Fire Unharmed

An Australian man escaped a house fire unharmed Wednesday, thanks to his alert pet parrot that cautioned him of the danger even before the smoke detectors could go off.

Anton Nguyen was fast asleep in bed late at night when the fire broke out at his two-story house in the suburb of Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, Queensland. The parrot, named Eric, started squawking upon sensing the fire, waking Nguyen up, ABC.net.au reported.

Nguyen, who lives alone, said he smelled smoke when he awoke.

"I heard a bang and Eric - my parrot - he started to yell so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke," Nguyen told the news portal. "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."

The parrot squawked "Anton! Anton!" to rouse him from his sleep, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services inspector Cameron Thomas told ABC. "There were smoke detectors [but] the bird alerted before the smoke detectors went off," said Thomas.

Nguyen said he did not hear the smoke detectors go off. By the time firefighters and emergency services personnel arrived at the scene, the house was engulfed in flames, according to the publication.

It took four crews over an hour to contain the blaze, according to the BBC.

The crews managed to prevent the flames from spreading to other properties but the interior of Nguyen’s home was left gutted as a result of the fire.

"The fire's pretty much well engulfed the whole premise, with exposures on the left-hand side that have needed protecting with some blistering on the exterior," Thomas told ABC.

Authorities were working to determine the source of the blaze.

In a similar incident that happened in 2019, a pet dog in Georgia was credited with saving its owners from a house fire that broke out late at night. The dog, named Sammy, started barking upon sensing the fire, helping the family escape without injuries. Fire officials said a deep freezer was the cause of the fire, which consumed the entire two-story house.