Firefighters rescue ducks
By DANA HERRA dherra@daily-chronicle.com
CORTLAND – Cortland firefighter Chris Fioretto has been working in fire service for almost 12 years, but Sunday morning was the first time he ever had to rescue someone with webbed feet.
Fioretto, a lieutenant with the all-volunteer fire department, was one of six Cortland firefighters who responded to the 100 block of South Somonauk Road Sunday to rescue 10 ducklings that had fallen into the storm sewer.
"We got called about 9 a.m. to assist police with an animal rescue," Fioretto said. "When we got there, the police officer on the scene told us there was an unknown number of baby ducks stuck in the sewer system."
A quick-thinking neighbor had captured the mother duck and confined her in a fenced-in backyard, Fioretto said. The firefighters used gas monitors to monitor the air quality in the sewer and make sure it was breathable, then set to work fishing the ducklings out.
Three of the babies were in an area only about three feet deep, so firefighters were able to capture them by hand, Fioretto said. But seven ducklings were in a deeper part of the sewer, about seven or eight feet deep.
"We used a fishing net and some bread," Fioretto said. "We lured the ducklings into the net then plucked them out, one by one, and reunited them with their mother."
It took about an hour to get all the ducklings safely out of the sewer, Fioretto said.
"We're thinking they just fell in," he said. "The sewer grate where the mom was found had some pretty big openings in it, and it seems they just fell through."
