Ceiling cat rescued by firefighters

Fire crews came to the rescue after curiosity nearly got the better of Gizmo the cat. The one-year-old cat was prowling round his owner’s house in Birmingham, which was undergoing building work on Monday, when he managed to get himself his lost inside the wall cavities for 24 hours.





The RSPCA alerted the West Midlands Fire Service and after a two-and-a-half hour search of the house guided by his Gizmo’s miaows, they managed to pull him through a hole in the ceiling. This tale had a happy ending as Gizmo is said to be “absolutely fine but hungry” after his ordeal. Crew commander Darran Gough, from Hay Mills fire station, said they used specialist equipment to find the missing moggy.





Mr Gough said: “We were called about 12.30pm. The owners had called the RSPCA who called us out. When we got there, we could hear Gizmo but couldn’t find him. Initially the miaowing was coming from a roof cavity in the living room. The owners were having building work done so there were a lot of open cavities which he had gone into from the garden. He was moving around all over the place and it was a case of tracking him down. We used the owner to call his name and then when he miaowed, we would use our detection equipment to slowly hone in on him.


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“We used a camera on a flexible stork which we can insert into small holes in walls, floors and ceilings.” After a two and a half hour search, the Tech Rescue team finally had him cornered in the ground floor ceiling of the house. Mr Gough said: “We heard him scratching around. We pulled a light fitting out and he poked his nose out. We then had to make the hole bigger and he climbed out on to the shoulder of one of my crew.” Mr Gough added: “If anyone does lose an animal like this they must call the RSPCA first. The animal must be missing for 24 hours before any service comes out.”