That’s a shear drop! Sheep are saved by plucky firefighter after clambering onto ROOF of terraced house
- Several sheep ended up getting stuck on the roofs of some Yorkshire cottages
- The fire brigade were called out to help the five stranded sheep in Newmillerdam
- The farm animals were able to leap over a small gap from a field onto the roofs
Firefighters might be dab hands at rescuing cats stuck in trees – but five sheep on a roof requires a little more creativity.
One fire station received a rather unusual call-out on Tuesday evening, after sheep grazing in a field behind a row of terraced cottages leapt over a 5ft gap and on to the tiled roof.
Arriving in Newmillerdam, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire – where the sheep had been stuck for several hours before the fire service was alerted – station commander Damian Cameron found one of the animals precariously close to a 25ft drop to the ground.
Five sheep became stranded on top of cottages in Newmillerdam, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and had to be rescued by firefighters
The sheep cleared a gap of five feet to get onto the roofs, but on the other side there was a near 25ft drop
Without his crew and fully equipped fire engine, Mr Cameron – with the help of a local landowner – got to work building a makeshift bridge out of timber for the sheep to cross back into the field.
He said: ‘The idea was to entice the sheep across. We had to use a bit of animal husbandry to get the sheep to go back across our bridge. Eventually one went over and the other four followed.’
A temporary fence has now been erected to stop a repeat of the drama.
Mr Cameron Tweeted photos of the stranded sheep, telling his followers: ‘Some calls are stranger than others! All now safe on terra firma.’
He said yesterday: ‘It was a very unusual job. I have had some strange ones involving animals before, including a cow on a balcony, but I have never had sheep on a roof before.’