Nearly a dozen ducklings stuck in a storm drain Friday were saved by South Metro firefighters in what the agency is calling its most “a-duck-able rescue yet.”
South Metro fire crews responded at about 1:14 p.m. Friday to a call for help about 10 ducklings that had “waddled into trouble” and fallen into a Greenwood Village storm drain, the fire department said on social media.
Philip Coleman was walking his dog outside the Prentice Place Lofts apartment building on Friday when he noticed a duck hanging around the storm drain, according to a video posted by South Metro Fire Rescue.
As he got closer, he heard the trapped ducklings quacking from inside the drain and called for help. He said he tried calling a couple of other resources before his dad told him to call the fire department.
South Metro crews were on scene in a matter of minutes, he said in the video.
Once the team removed the storm drain’s metal grate, one rescuer climbed down into the well with a bucket to haul the ducklings back up to safety, the video shows. The mother duck watched, quacking loudly, from a nearby creekbed.
“This is a pretty common call in that spring-summer time when ducklings are out,” one firefighter said in the video.
Firefighters kept the ducklings in the safety of the bucket until they resealed the gate, then released them back into a nearby creek to reunite with their mother.
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