Firefighter Burke Alexander has faced countless emergencies in his career — but the life he saved one quiet morning at the Klein Fire Department in Texas was smaller and more fragile than any he’d ever rescued before.
As Alexander prepared for his shift, something on the ground caught his eye: a tiny shape lying motionless on the concrete. He knelt down and realized it was a hummingbird, belly-up and barely breathing.
“Really quick, I checked if he was breathing,” Alexander told The Dodo. “When I saw he was, I immediately went and got some sugar water.”
He thought the bird might have gotten trapped inside the fire station and simply worn himself out. Gently, he held a drop of sugar water near the little beak — but the bird didn’t respond. Something wasn’t right.
Leaning closer, Alexander noticed a faint shimmer across the hummingbird’s feathers — something delicate, nearly invisible.
Cobwebs.
“I thought, ‘Oh, there’s something on here,’” he said. “I started pulling, and it kind of freed his wing. It had been wrapped completely.”
Piece by piece, Alexander removed the sticky threads until, suddenly, the hummingbird’s tiny body twitched. Then, as if remembering what freedom felt like, the bird shot up into the air — a blur of green and gold — and zipped through the open station doors into the sunlight.
“I was startled,” Alexander said with a laugh. “He just took off.”
For Alexander, who grew up surrounded by hummingbirds on his family’s property, the moment was deeply meaningful.
“I’ve saved several animals and people — obviously, a lot more people,” he said. “But it’s always a good feeling, knowing you can be there for someone. I don’t usually record things like that, but I hope it helps people understand how hummingbirds can be helped.”
That morning, one firefighter’s instinct and kindness turned what could have been a quiet tragedy into a tiny miracle — proof that no act of rescue is ever too small.
Burke Alexander and his colleagues are volunteers for Texas Heroes Advocating Autism Research, a nonprofit they support through community work and fundraising. You can help their cause by purchasing one of their charity calendars here.
