Couple’s pet chicken alerted them to blaze

MILWAUKEE – A Wisconsin couple says clucks, not firetrucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Dennis Murawska said a pet chicken named Cluck Cluck woke his wife, Susan Cotey, with loud clucking from its cage in the basement two floors below about 6:15 a.m. Thursday.

Murawska said he had been half awake but didn’t know about the fire because the smoke alarms hadn’t gone off. He realized something was wrong when his wife got up.

“The chicken gets quite vocal when she gets excited,” he said.

Cluck Cluck came from a nearby farm in Alma Center, about 135 miles east of Minneapolis, Murawska said. When the chicken began wandering over to his house, his neighbor said he could kill it because it wasn’t producing any eggs. But Murawska felt sorry for Cluck Cluck because she had a mutated foot and decided to keep her. He fed the bird and built a coop, and then his wife let Cluck Cluck into the basement on cold nights.

“I spent way more money than I ever should’ve,” Murawska said by telephone. “I guess it paid off.”