It was a tiny patient in the middle of a fire call, and people online could not get enough of it.
Firefighters in Oakland, in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, treated a pigeon after a vehicle fire earlier this week, according to Oakland Firefighters Local 55.
The union said the crew spotted the bird “in distress” and stepped in to help.
“The crew reported the pigeon came up to them seeking help. The pigeon seemed to have suffered some smoke inhalation from the vehicle fire,” Oakland Firefighters Local 55 said in a post on social media.
Footage posted online showed a firefighter giving the pigeon oxygen, with a mask held over the bird’s face as it stood in the road.
According to the union, the pigeon flew away after “clearing out its lungs”.
The crew’s actions drew praise online, including one comment that said, “I will gladly keep paying taxes if this is what it keeps getting used for.”
By Thursday afternoon, the video had more than 1 million likes on Instagram.
The footage recalled a recent rescue in southern California, where firefighters pulled four cats from an apartment damaged by fire.
According to Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department, three of the cats were not breathing, and firefighters and a local sheriff’s deputy used oxygen tanks and CPR to revive them. The cats all survived.
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