Three Rock Community Fire Protection District firefighters worked together Sunday afternoon (April 26) to rescue a great horned owl that was wrapped in fishing line and stuck in a tree along Summerfield Drive in Imperial, Capt. Tommy Siebert said.
Siebert said someone who lives along that street called Rock Fire at 2 p.m., reporting that an animal was stuck in a tree. Siebert and firefighters Zack Boyer and Eric Bollinger, who were stationed at House 5, 3749 Telegraph Road, in Arnold, responded to the scene.
When the firefighters arrived, they found the owl, which had fishing line wrapped around its right wing. The line also was wrapped around a tree branch, Siebert said.
“He (the owl) looked like a kite when we first got there,” Siebert said.
The firefighters got onto a nearby home’s roof and used a pole to cut the string. Then, they used the pole to prompt the owl to get out of the tree, and when it did, Michael Beran, the owner of Wildlife Command Center and a master falconer, took the owl, Siebert said.
Beran delivered the owl to the World Bird Sanctuary, where it will be treated and then released after its wing heals, Rock Fire said in a Facebook post.
“We kind of had to help (the owl) get out of the tree,” Siebert said. “Those things are strong. I didn’t realize how strong they are. He finally let go of his grip on the branch.”
Siebert said it was one of his more memorable calls.
“It is one of those things you don’t do every day, and you are like, ‘I will always remember this one.’”