‘Anton!’: Pet parrot saves man’s life in house fire by calling out his name

‘I heard a bang and my parrot started to yell, so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke,’ owner says

Parrot (EPA)

A man survived a house fire last night after his pet parrot squawked the alarm before the fire detectors went off and woke him up.

Anton Nguyen was sleeping in his home in Kangaroo Point, inner Brisbane, Australia when a blaze broke out on Tuesday night. Mr Nguyen was alone.

The house had fire and smoke detectors, but a spokesperson for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said they hadn’t started. The parrot squawked “Anton! Anton!” and alerted its owner.

“I heard a bang and Eric, my parrot, he started to yell, so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke,” Mr Nguyen told ABC news.

“I grabbed Eric, opened the door and looked to the back of the house and saw some flames. And so I’ve grabbed my bag and took off and bolted downstairs.”

“I’m in shock but I’m fine,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said the flames had swallowed much of the house when four crews arrived on the scene.

Firefighters were able to bring the flames under control by 3:30 am local time. No one was injured in the incident. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

It is not the first time that a parrot saves its owner from danger. Earlier this year, a pet parrot named Louie woke up a family of three in Tennessee, USA, during a house fire, saving their lives from another house fire. Larry Klein, one of the owners, even called the parrot “a true hero”. In 2014, a parrot named Wunsy reportedly saved its owner from an assault in a north London park by flapping its wings and squawking, making the attacker flee.

“We’re not all lucky enough to have Eric in our lives,” the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said on social media, “which is why everyone should make sure they have interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms.”