Parrot saves owner by waking him up during a fire in Australia

Eric, the parrot, had squawked "Anton! Anton!" to alert his owner before smoke detectors did

A veterinarian feeds a parrot chick that was recovered by highway police from the trunk of a car, in Jundiai, Brazil, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. AP

A brave parrot saved his owner from a house fire that destroyed almost all of their home in Australia on Wednesday.

The parrot, named Eric, woke up his owner Anton Nguyen in the middle of night after his two-storey house went up in flames in Brisbane, Queensland.

Eric managed to save Mr Nguyen before smoke detectors raised the alarm.

"I heard a bang and Eric – my parrot – he started to yell so I woke up and I smelled a bit of smoke," Mr Nguyen told ABC.

"I grabbed Eric, opened the door and looked to the back of the house and saw some flames... and so I took off and bolted downstairs."

Mr Nguyen said, shortly after escaping the fire, that he was in a state of “shock” but is in good health and unharmed.

"Everything's alright so long as I have myself and the bird."

Eric had squawked "Anton! Anton!" to alert Mr Nguyen of the danger, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Acting Inspector Cam Thomas said.

"There were smoke detectors [but] the bird alerted before the smoke detectors went off."

The fire had "pretty much well engulfed" the house, Mr Thomas said.

Firefighters arrived at Mr Nguyen's house at around 1am local time when the house was engulfed in flames.

It took four crews over an hour to contain the fire in the suburb of Kangaroo Point.

The cause of the fire is unknown and authorities have opened an investigation.

Similar cases have been reported where pet patriots have saved their owners' lives across the world.

In February, a parrot named Louie, alerted his owner Barbara Klein, her husband Larry and their six-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn Rose Pellerin to a fire which had begun in their kitchen.

The three family members had all been asleep when the blaze started in their house in Lebanon, Tennessee.

They woke up when they heard Louie yelling “fire”, a word he had reportedly never used previously.

Although they survived, their parrot and four dogs all died in the fire.