FORESTDALE, MA (WBZ-AM) – We've all heard stories about hero dogs and cats alerting families and helping them escape their burning homes, but how about a hero bird? 80 year old Kevin Gardner admits he can be very stubborn.
Gardner was at his home in Forestdale Tuesday night, with no power. He made a fire and was sleeping on the couch to keep warm.
At one point, his wife came downstairs and told Levin the upstairs was filled with smoke and the carbon monoxide detector was going off.
“’The O-2 sensor said 104.’ She said ‘what does that mean?’ I said – ‘don't worry about it. Go ahead and get yourself a ride to the shelter.’” Gardner said.,
Gardner didn't want to go to the shelter so he stayed right where he was - that it, until his 20-year-old African gray parrot started talking and squawking up a storm
“She was telling me ‘I gotta get outta here. I gotta get outta here.’ that's the same thing my wife was saying, so I figured she picked it up from her. She just kept rambling and making a shrieking sound and that's when I thought that something might really be wrong,” he said.
Kevin says the parrot told him to open the door.
“The slider - she wanted the slider open. When I opened it, smoke started going out and she got a little air. That's when she told me to open the door.
When he called the fire dep't to tell them about the c-o levels, they told him to get out of the house immediately. Kevin says if it wasn't for Priscilla, he would have stayed in a very dangerous situation.
“This carbon monoxide is nothing to mess with. I was being stubborn. If it hadn't been for her, i probably would have stayed there and probably been in bad shape,” he said.
Gardner says he's had Priscilla her whole life.
“She's like one of the family. Nice little bird. Me: what else does she say? Oh, she says everything. She's got a vocabulary like a teenager.”
When the Gardners went to the shelter at Sandwich High School, they brought Priscilla with them. She was a big hit.
Everybody was going to see her. She was upset they wasn't giving her any goddies. Nice little bird.
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports.