Arlington County firefighters rescue 'Chester the Toucan' from behind dishwasher
Arlington County firefighters rescue 'Chester the Toucan'
The Arlington County Fire Department went viral this week for helping rescue a pet toucan that got stuck behind a dishwasher.
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Arlington County Fire Department went viral this week for helping rescue a pet toucan that got stuck behind a dishwasher.
Firefighter Jake Easton was working Sunday when the call came in.
"[Another firefighter] says, 'hey there’s a lady on the phone who says her Toucan is stuck in the dishwasher," Easton laughed.
Easton and three other firefighters were intrigued, and headed just a few minutes down the road to investigate.
There they met Maria Stagliano, the toucan's owner. She told them her 8-year-old mini toucan, named Chester, had escaped her grip while trying to bathe him, and accidentally wedged himself in the dead space next to the dishwasher.
She first called maintenance in the building to ask for help moving the dishwasher, she said, but they were not able to come for two days.
"I was like, okay, this is bad," Stagliano recalled.
What happened next:
When Easton and his crew arrived, Stagliano showed them where Chester had nuzzled himself and they quickly removed the dishwasher.
"There wasn’t a lot of rescue to it," he said chuckling. "But there was Chester!"
Stagliano's home camera captured the moment firefighters freed Chester and posted it to social media. Chester, if you can believe it, is a famous toucan, with close to a million and a half followers on social media.
"Chester has fans all over the world," Stagliano explained.
The moment she posted it, it blew up. The video has since been shared millions of times.
"It’s just been wild," Easton said. "Never ever did I think just helping someone get their bird out of a stuck place would end up like this."
Big picture view:
Stagliano said she believes the video did so well because people are craving good news.
"There’s been a lot of bad news in the DMV recently," she told FOX 5. "And this was a positive story that was a breath of fresh air recently and a wholesome story."
"Our job is to help people," Easton said. "And she called for help, and that’s what we came to do."