Parrot warns of house on fire, saves neighbors in Costa Rica

November 10th, 2015 (EFE) A parrot squawked a warning that a house had caught fire in a San Jose suburb, and in so doing saved the neighbors, though three homes were destroyed and material damage was widespread, the Costa Rican daily, Diario Extra said Tuesday.

“Fuego, fuego, fuego (Fire, fire, fire),” screamed the parrot named Betty, the pet of Gretel Pereira, whose family was one of several affected by the blaze that broke out last Sunday night in Uruca in San Jose.

The fire started in the house next door, and “I immediately got Betty out along with everything I could gather together,” Pereira, who lives there with her husband, children and parrot, said.

The parrot’s warning spread the alarm among the neighbors and was vital in getting them to safety with all the possessions they could grab and take with them.

Pereira told the newspaper she was worried about the family that lived in the house where the fire started and which was totally destroyed, “because an unemployed man lived there with his wife and three children.”

The causes of the fire are currently under investigation.

EFE with editing by ICR News