PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – It wasn’t quite a classic children’s story, but first responders from the local fire department nonetheless achieved beloved status recently for rescuing a high and dry brood of ducks in this northern New York community.

It seems the mother duck laid her eggs in the greenery of the second-floor outdoor terrace at AuSable Hall on the Plattsburgh campus of the State University of New York, resulting in no way for her hatched babies to get down.

Menacing crows damaged nine of the 13 eggs over a few days before Kristie Gonyea, a department secretary, took notice of the sad mother’s quacking, realized there was no entry to the terrace from inside the building and beckoned help. She said the terrace likely seemed a safe place for the eggs but the mother duck “didn’t realize it wouldn’t work to get them down.”

Fire Department Lt. Chris Mitchell soon arrived with a tall ladder, climbed to the terrace top, softly placed the four hatched ducklings into a water bucket and handed it down to fellow responders.

All the while the mother duck watched from the ground. Once reunited with her brood, she promptly marched them across the street and toward a pond next to the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital.

There was no need to check the ducklings into the ER.

The Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican provided the details for this story.