Virginia firefighters rescue TikTok-famous toucan from behind dishwasher

ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — Northern Virginia firefighters swooped in to save a woman’s beloved pet toucan after the social media star hopped into a hard-to-reach hole behind her dishwasher over the weekend.

Four Arlington firefighters at Station 5 in Crystal City received an abnormal call Sunday, asking if they would flock to a nearby apartment to free the exotic bird named ‘Chester’ from an unknown alcove in the bird owner’s kitchen.

Perched on Maria Stagliano’s shoulder Monday, Chester showed off his flying colors to DC News Now outside Station 5.

“There you go!” Stagliano said as she perched Chester on the front of a fire engine.

The 8-year-old toucan ruffled Stagliano’s feathers after disappearing in a series of events she called ‘clumsiness.’

“I was cleaning my apartment, and I didn’t realize Chester was in the bathroom with me, and he accidentally jumped over me and fell into the toilet. And, I freaked out because that was the first time in four years of having him (that) he has done that,” she said.

After his fall into the throne, Stagliano proceeded to give Chester a bath in the kitchen sink, only for the bird to hop out.

“So, he jumped and went on to my floor of my kitchen and tried to hide underneath the cabinets. I looked down and all of a sudden he was gone, and I was like, ‘Where did my bird just go? There’s only so many places.’ I felt crazy,” she added.

Still soaking wet from his accidental dip in the toilet and subsequent scrub in the sink, Chester had managed to squeeze himself into a dark hole, where Stagliano discovered he was stuck behind the dishwasher.

“He’s very active. So for him to just be, like, frozen in the back, standing there, like, just wet and scared, I mean, I couldn’t get him out. I tried a raspberry. I tried throwing [his] rubber ducky in for him to play with. He did not want to move,” she said.

At her beak-ing point, Stagliano said she tried to get building maintenance to help free Chester, and for some reason, they couldn’t immediately assist.

That’s when she said she called Arlington County firefighters down the road, recalling, “I think I said, ‘Hi. I know this is going to sound like a strange call, and I’m not sure if this is the right place to be talking to, but my building won’t help me. My toucan is stuck somewhere in a little alcove behind the dishwasher.'”

Minutes later, four firefighters swooped in and rescued Chester.

Stagliano took to social media, where the bird’s 590,000 Instagram followers and 832,000 TikTok fans could witness his ordeal.

The crew that rescued Chester was off-duty Monday on the Labor Day holiday when we dropped by the Station 5 fire hall. Stagliano says she and her shoulder-bound bestie plan to return and share their thanks.