A fire that broke out at a downtown Juneau residence Sunday morning killed more than a dozen exotic birds and a pet dog from smoke inhalation.
Carlene and Barry Shaw, owners of BaCar's restaurant, were working the Sunday morning breakfast crowd, when a neighbor from up the hill ran into the dining room at about 9:30.
"Your house is on fire!" Cheryl Lewis, 48, told Carlene. After calling the Capital City Fire and Rescue, Carlene, 54, ran up the hill to her home at 339 Fifth Street.
Thick smoke billowed out of the bedroom window of the 1,200-square-foot home. About 30 exotic birds and several other pets were inside the home when the fire started.
Cockatiels, finches, cockatoos, macaws, doves and a variety of other birds cawed and chirped wildly, flapping their wings in an effort to escape the smoke. The couple also owns two dogs and two iguanas. One of the dogs, 18-year-old Sugar, a gray German Shepherd mix, also died from smoke inhalation.
"The cops got here first and they're trying to stop people from going in," Lewis said. "The people from the neighborhood know that the birds are in there. We tried not to get in the policemen's way, but we wanted to get the birds out."
Babe, the couple's blue and gold macaw, a large tropical parrot, was in the window when Capital City Fire and Rescue arrived, Carlene said. The bird was "bouncing back and forth trying to get out," she said.
Barry Shaw, 55, arrived shortly after his wife and broke out one of the windows to the bird room in an effort to pull out as many of the animals as he could.
The couple said Babe was saved, along with several other birds, but Barry suffered close to a dozen cuts to his hands and arms.
Carlene said Prudence, one of two cockatoos, died shortly after being rescued from the house. Corky, the other cockatoo, might also die, she said.
The rescued birds and other pets are being held and treated at the Gastineau Humane Society, Carlene said.
David Hunt, 61, who lives with the couple, said he was at the house when the fire started.
"When I came up from downstairs where I was working on laundry, somebody was trying to come in through the front door and the back door," Hunt said. "They broke the back door open. At that time I tried to go to the bird room, and when I got to the door to the back it was full of smoke and I couldn't get back there. And a fireman grabbed me and told that I'd have to go outside."
After looking inside the home after the fire was extinguished Hunt said the fire appeared to have started near the couple's computer, where multiple appliances were plugged into a power strip.
Craig Brown, acting captain for the Juneau Fire Station, said the fire was contained to the couple's bedroom. The animals were evacuated to the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and neighbor's homes.
Brown said the fire department did not yet have an estimate of the damage or indication of how the fire started, but added there did not appear to be any structural damage to the house.
The Shaws said they will stay at the Bergman Hotel in downtown Juneau but will close BaCar's today and Tuesday.
The couple has lived in Juneau for 12 years and said they started caring for many of the birds about eight years ago.
"Most of them, you know, needed a home, basically," Barry said. "The parrots are really, really hard to feed. People get them and just don't realize how much work is involved. There's $5,000 birds out there that you can't give away."
Carlene said people began donating the birds after the Juneau Empire published a story about the couple's modest collection in the mid-1990s.
"Once you start you just keep running into more animals that need homes," Carlene said.
