Firefighters free terrified squirrel from Parade pond

5:56pm Monday 7th January 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Ben Endley, Senior reporter

A terrified squirrel was rescued by firefighters from a pond in Watford town centre on Sunday afternoon.

The furry rodent had become trapped on an island in the middle of the water feature in the Parade, prompting calls to the RSPCA and the Hertfordshire fire service.

Two appliances and seven firefighters from Watford and Garston attended at around noon and used a ladder and wading gear to help the furry critter.

The soaking squirrel gratefully swam out to the ladder before scampering up it to safety.

Eyewitness Martin Ramirez had been shopping in town when he saw the commotion.

He said: "I was there when the fire brigade got the animal out. Quite a few people stopped to watch and take photos.

"I have every praise for the fire service, I was really taken aback by their professionalism and it was wonderful to see. If it hadn’t been for them that terrified little thing would have died."

Photos of the incident drew a mixed response from users on Twitter with some criticising the use of public funds to rescue a squirrel while others defended the action.

A Hertfordshire firefighter said the decision to rescue the squirrel was made partly due to concern that drunk individuals would try to rescue it and end up needing further emergency response.

Comments(34)

MarsLander says...
6:16pm Mon 7 Jan 13

It was absolutely the right thing to do to rescue it, assuming it really needed rescuing.

I am not quite sure why two appliances were sent out though. Maybe the firefighters were bored and fancied a trip out of the station.

Anyway, well done to the Fire Brigade for doing a good job. A nice story to start the year off with.

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LSC says...
6:32pm Mon 7 Jan 13

The firefighters were being paid anyway. The actual financial extras wouldn't be that large, and any 'call out' is useful for teamwork and training. I don't have a problem with this at all.

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OAC Bailiff says...
6:34pm Mon 7 Jan 13

ssssshhhhh secret squirrel well done watford fire brigade good thinking about drunks trying to rescue it youve probably saved a lot of agro

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the_mofo says...
7:33pm Mon 7 Jan 13

I'd like to think that there would have been a less costly action, but a life is a life.
Well done all those involved.

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Manic_ says...
8:22pm Mon 7 Jan 13

Ha Ha. Ads by Google on this page are (amongst others) for Grey Squirrel control, Rodent traps, Vermin extermination & 24/7 Pest control London.

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Nascot says...
8:29pm Mon 7 Jan 13

Manic_ wrote:
Ha Ha. Ads by Google on this page are (amongst others) for Grey Squirrel control, Rodent traps, Vermin extermination & 24/7 Pest control London.
You're lucky, it was Ukrainian Wives for me!

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LSC says...
8:49pm Mon 7 Jan 13

Nascot wrote:
Manic_ wrote:
Ha Ha. Ads by Google on this page are (amongst others) for Grey Squirrel control, Rodent traps, Vermin extermination & 24/7 Pest control London.
You're lucky, it was Ukrainian Wives for me!
I'll swap. I get finding a job and learning to drive. Neither are priorities at this time. I'm not sure a Ukrainian wife is either, but it would be interesting to be wrong in a different language.

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jasonwatford says...
9:01pm Mon 7 Jan 13

it got there on its own i guess ?? so let it get back..dont waste time and money on a wild animal.....let nature decide..waste of petrol !!

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E.Coli says...
9:17pm Mon 7 Jan 13

squirrels are not protected by the purple dome that looks after all the residents of Watford then ?

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TRT says...
12:06am Tue 8 Jan 13

So that's what the purple submarine was for. A kind of Thunderbird 7 for stranded squirrels. Of course, if they'd had a bridge over the pond this would never have happened.

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HertsPeter says...
8:54am Tue 8 Jan 13

I'm pleased to read the mostly positive comments - I agree re the crucial fact that a life is a life, and in any case the additional cost of a few gallons of fuel is far outweighed by the positives.

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Smilingburkinshaw says...
9:13am Tue 8 Jan 13

Glad nothing died but would have been a bit annoyed if I or any other human had died in a fire because the fire crews were saving a squirrel!

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Phil Drackley says...
9:45am Tue 8 Jan 13

We were told there are laws against releasing squirrels into the wild. Or was this one 'allowed to escape'?

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theguitarman says...
9:47am Tue 8 Jan 13

Tuesday 8th. Stop Press
--------------------
----------

The Squirrel makes it to national press ( Daily Express page 3! ), so did local councillor Stephen Giles Medhurst ( looking for a knighthood next year ?), but where was the picture of SGM and Dotty standing by the pond pointing at the water/island ?.

Look, all it took was maybe a gallon of diesel ( not petrol, jasonwatford ). The firemen were all being paid whether or not they were on a fire call of sitting having a cuppa in the station, so no expense there.

The fire engine existed both before and after the event and had been paid for long ago. No big money was lost, nor time etc. I would bet that if a fire call had come in they would have left the scene as the drivers normally monitor the radio.

Squirels can swim, I have an issue however in how it got there in the first place ?. Yes the fire service were right, later on some drunk numptie would have waded in and then risked all in an uncontrolled situation.

So thanks Watford Fire Service, you did a grand job as always and yaboo sucks to all those who think it was a waste of time and money.

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garston tony says...
9:47am Tue 8 Jan 13

LSC wrote:
The firefighters were being paid anyway. The actual financial extras wouldn't be that large, and any 'call out' is useful for teamwork and training. I don't have a problem with this at all.
I agree with your comment word for word.

Smilingburkinshaw i'm sure if a call had come in for a housefire or accident that needed their attention they would have left the squirrel, but as LSC pointed out there was no real cost to this and it is tantamount to a training exercise

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Smilingburkinshaw says...
9:59am Tue 8 Jan 13

Yeah i'm sure they would but they would have lost valuable time putting their ladders away etc!

Dont get me wrong I'm all for saving life, whatever form that takes but i'm sure if someone had died because of a delay due to the saving of a squirrel we would all be outraged and rightly so!

Maybe they had enough cover for other jobs. I don't know.

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gusgreen says...
10:00am Tue 8 Jan 13

theguitarman wrote:
Tuesday 8th. Stop Press
--------------------

----------

The Squirrel makes it to national press ( Daily Express page 3! ), so did local councillor Stephen Giles Medhurst ( looking for a knighthood next year ?), but where was the picture of SGM and Dotty standing by the pond pointing at the water/island ?.

Look, all it took was maybe a gallon of diesel ( not petrol, jasonwatford ). The firemen were all being paid whether or not they were on a fire call of sitting having a cuppa in the station, so no expense there.

The fire engine existed both before and after the event and had been paid for long ago. No big money was lost, nor time etc. I would bet that if a fire call had come in they would have left the scene as the drivers normally monitor the radio.

Squirels can swim, I have an issue however in how it got there in the first place ?. Yes the fire service were right, later on some drunk numptie would have waded in and then risked all in an uncontrolled situation.

So thanks Watford Fire Service, you did a grand job as always and yaboo sucks to all those who think it was a waste of time and money.
Very good comment - it also made the front of The Sun - (no surprise there then)
This could be treated as a very good training exercise and probably was quite enjoyed by the crews.
The next time these crews come across a child or an adult stuck in a river or similar they will probably be quite grateful for the opportunity the squirrel gave them to hone their skills - as will anyone rescued
Well done the fire service.

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Vicar*o*rage says...
10:02am Tue 8 Jan 13

Grey Squirrels are considered vermin and it is illegal to release one. In the 40's through the 60's, there was a bounty paid for each grey squirrel tail brought to the police station, either 2 shotgun cartridges or 1/- (5p), enough to buy a pint of beer, and change left over for a 3d (1p) bag of chips

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MJ1 says...
10:24am Tue 8 Jan 13

There will be more need rescuing if the Mayor builds her £4 million bridge across the pond

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E.Coli says...
10:38am Tue 8 Jan 13

MJ1 wrote:
There will be more need rescuing if the Mayor builds her £4 million bridge across the pond
I hope it will be painted purple

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theguitarman says...
10:50am Tue 8 Jan 13

Phil Drackley wrote:
We were told there are laws against releasing squirrels into the wild. Or was this one 'allowed to escape'?
It was on an open island, it wasn't in a box or a building, it wasnt confined other then being on an island ( I repeat again how did it get there ? ) so it wasnt released, it ran up a firemens ladder and ran off to the nearest tree.

( WO, please put in a picture of Dotty pointing at a tree !)

Your turn !

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dytham says...
10:53am Tue 8 Jan 13

Herts County Councillor Steven Giles-Medhurst said: ”The cost of sending a fire engine to a hoax call was estimated by officials at £1,970 in 2008. That put the cost of Sunday’s squirrel rescue in the region of £6,000."

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TRT says...
11:06am Tue 8 Jan 13

One report I read said that it fell out of a tree. Not that I recall seeing any branches overhanging the pond. Maybe it's a rare flying squirrel. Was there a moose hanging around nearby?

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garston tony says...
2:23pm Tue 8 Jan 13

Smilingburkinshaw, fire crews often do training exercises when on duty which I'd assume would delay them a little should a call come in so again needing to put a ladder away isnt going to be that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure they do all they can when not on an emergency call to make sure they can react just as quickly to a 999 call.

I know where you are coming from but I don’t think this is anything to get worried about. Having said that if they are called out because your cat is stuck up a tree then I think there should be a charge. And as to people that make hoax calls tie them to a stake on a bonfire, set fire to it and tell them the fire crews cant come as quickly to put the fire out as they have had to respond to a hoax call. That'll soon put a stop to it

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garston tony says...
2:29pm Tue 8 Jan 13

dytham wrote:
Herts County Councillor Steven Giles-Medhurst said: ”The cost of sending a fire engine to a hoax call was estimated by officials at £1,970 in 2008. That put the cost of Sunday’s squirrel rescue in the region of £6,000."
That figure just divies up how much it costs per hour for the crew and aportions an amount for running and the upkeep of a fire engine and the fire station too probably over the average time a crew might be seeing to a fire. Might even be a cost added for police time and for investigating the cause of the fire etc. Most of those costs are there if the crew is called out or not, so you could easily say it costs £1970 per fire engine and crew for I don’t know two or three hours or each engine and crew costs £16000 a day.

The actual costs for rescuing this squirrel above what was going to be incurred anyway would probably be £20 in fuel, small price for a) saving a life even if 'only' an animals and b) a good training excerise and c) potentially the life or hassle of savign a life of someone who might have gone in to rescue the thing itself.

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dytham says...
2:54pm Tue 8 Jan 13

A recent Freedom of Information request sent to 56 fire services showed they had rescued 17,000 animals in the three years to 2011 at a cost of £3.5million. That included 19 squirrels…and one snail which was crawling up an elderly woman’s wall.

One comment reads: "Every time emergency vehicles respond to a call and drive with their lights and sirens exceeding the speed limit there is a great risk of an accident. Many emergency vehicles are involved in accidents every year. Imagine if a crash had occurred and a person was injured or killed by a fire engine racing to save a SQUIRREL!!!! High speed response are only justified in EMERGENCIES, and like it or not animal fans a squirrel in a pond is not an emergency."

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TRT says...
3:02pm Tue 8 Jan 13

So presumably that cost is included in their motor vehicle insurance...

Anyway, I read on the BBC website (yes, it's made BBC news!) that the 999 handler believed that there were people trying to rescue the animal, putting themselves in peril, hence the blue-light response.

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dytham says...
3:21pm Tue 8 Jan 13

Interesting that Watford fire originally tweeted a link to pictures on their own website of the squirrel rescue.
The pictures have now been removed and their twitter account hidden.
Are they now ashamed of them / coverup?

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crazyfrog says...
7:52pm Tue 8 Jan 13

whole epsisode blown out of proportion by Giles-medhurst if you ask me, this is not much more then a bit of on the job training, it also shows a compassionate side to our emergency services to, well done Herts fire and Rescue. p.s iam also a Herts Taxpayer and the only waste of money i would complain about are some of our county Councillors!

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sooper says...
9:33pm Tue 8 Jan 13

Dont the adverts by google represent the last thing you searched for on the Internet ie mine were holidays ......... who was looking at Ukranian Wives :D

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garston tony says...
10:30am Wed 9 Jan 13

Dytham, as per my previous post when people talk about the cost of a call out all they are doing is divying up the costs that would be incurred anyway and trying to aportion it. The actual cost above what would already be incurred is going to be a very small portion of the bigger figure they bandy around.

If its £2k a call out I'd say all it probably cost the brigade was £20 in fuel on top of what was going to be incurred anyway for the engine and crew to be sat back at the station waiting. A small price for a good training exercise.

As to sirens and speeding around I seriously doubt they do that for non emergency calls like this.

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dytham says...
12:00pm Wed 9 Jan 13

Well, another post from garston tony, who previously suggested that "people who make hoax calls be burnt tied to a stake on a bonfire".

The fire service can't have it both ways in complaining that a hoax call costs thousands but a real one virtually nothing.

Area commander Ian Parkhouse was quoted as saying:
"We sent the appropriate response to that for a risk to life because we believed people could have been in danger" - so I would hope that they did drive there quickly.

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Mohandas says...
10:02am Fri 11 Jan 13

Lovely story but seriously was he squirreling something away or doing a recky for the mulberry bridge over troubled waters.

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garston tony says...
11:25am Fri 11 Jan 13

Dytham, thankfully I'm able to see the difference between someone deliberately wasting the fire brigades time (ie hoax callers) and something that is a genuine need and a genuine opportunity for the brigade to use and practise their skills and equipment.

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