A couple of Owen Sound firefighters conducted an usual rescue on the long weekend – after a call about a duck in distress.
At about 8:30 Monday morning, Captain Glenn Welsh and Firefighter Clayton Kreuger responded to a call from a concerned citizen about a mother duck by a storm drain grate, near Wendy’s on the city’s east side.
Welsh tells Bayshore Broadcasting News they pried open the heavy grate and found roughly nine ducklings stuck in the drain below.
A video posted to social media shows Kreuger and Welsh on their stomachs, with the grate pried up, pulling the ducklings out from below, while plenty of duckling squeaking can be heard in the background.
Welsh says there was about 6 inches of water, and also a couple of pipes off the grate area, so they blocked those with boards so the frightened ducklings wouldn’t go down them.
“We were able to get the grate open. They were maybe three feet, three and a half feet down, so we were able to at one point, use a bucket to get a couple out and then grab the rest by hand,” says Welsh.
Once the ducklings were back on the ground, they bolted for their mother to regroup. “They were pretty tiny, I wouldn’t imagine they were more than a few days old,” says Welsh who notes the grates have maybe an inch and a half or so gap, and they probably walked over it and slipped through.
“We were speaking with one gentleman on the scene and he said every year they seem to nest in a moist, swampy area in the back corner behind Wendy’s so I think that’s where they were heading back to,” says Welsh.
He says it’s his first duckling rescue, but the department has also rescued other animals, most often dogs who are stuck on ice or something like a crevice while out for a walk.
B1 shift to the rescue!
#owensound @opffa @CityOwenSound @OwenSoundST @NewsBayshore pic.twitter.com/IJYMNQeRnN
— Owen Sound FF L531 (@IAFF531) May 18, 2026