Firefighters rescue duckling from St Albans drain

A DUCKLING has been rescued by firefighters after it fell down a drain in the city centre. Some members of the public had been following a duck and her eight chicks from the police station in Victoria Street before one of them dropped down a storm cover i

A DUCKLING has been rescued by firefighters after it fell down a drain in the city centre.

Some members of the public had been following a duck and her eight chicks from the police station in Victoria Street before one of them dropped down a storm cover in Chequer Street, just before 7.30pm last night.

Firefighters from St Albans arrived at the scene, opposite the Cross Keys pub, to find that the duckling was out of reach as it had crawled along the pipe, but they could still hear it chirping.

Firstly, the firefighters asked a member of the public to get some bread from the nearby pub to see if they could coax the chick out.

But when that failed to work, the crews lifted up a drain cover outside Oxfam, which was connected to the same pipe, and filled it with water so that the duckling could be washed into the reach of the firefighters.

The duckling emerged from the incident a little dirty but unscathed, and a member of the public took it to be reunited with its mum and siblings which had headed down Holywell Hill and into Verulamium Park.

Chequer Street was closed by the police for about 40 minutes while the duck rescue was carried out.