Lucky Ducks Waddling in West Pittston

May 20--Since joining the West Pittston Fire Department in 1993, fire Chief John Hood has seen just about everything.

But at about 3 p.m. Monday, Hood responded to his first-ever duckling rescue, which he referred to as "a one-in-a-million" call.

"We've pulled possums out of storm drains, we pulled cats off of roofs and trees," Hood said. "But this was my first duck rescue."

Hood joined a handful of firefighters, as well as one police officer and one street department worker, in saving a group of five or six ducklings that were trapped in a storm drain along Philadelphia and Susquehanna avenues.

Hood said ducks and geese reside along the Susquehanna River shoreline all year, but because of a cat, the mother duck was separated from its ducklings. Hood said he believes a passing driver reported the trapped ducks to police.

"I guess the mother and babies were walking along the river bank and a cat chased the little ducklings into the storm drain," Hood said.

To save the ducklings, the group used machinery to remove the grate covering the storm drain. Volunteers grabbed the ducks and brought them back above ground.

Ivy Berry, who happened to see the duckling rescue as a passerby, estimated the storm drain was at least five feet deep.

Hood said the process of removing the ducks from the storm drain took about 20 minutes and he considers the rescue to be a success, adding the fire department treated the duckling rescue as serious as any emergency call.

The ducks showed no injury or physical discoloration -- "The storm drains were clean," Hood said. The rescuers dropped the ducks off along the river.

"We put them back in their natural habitat," Hood said. "(We) put them in a box and took them right along the river there underneath a tree."

"As soon as we set them down, the mother came down to get them."

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570-821-2117, @CVBufano