FIREFIGHTERS are used to rescuing cats from trees but when a teenager decided to take matters into his own hands, he was the one who needed help.
Bradley Gander scaled a tree near his home in Pierce’s Lane, Haywards Heath, to try to save his neighbour's cat but had to be rescued by the fire service after getting stuck.
The cat, called Tilly, had been in the tree for a day and the 13-year-old decided to act after he heard her mewling.
His mother Lorraine Gander said the day turned into a "nightmare" as it took fire crews more than two hours to remove Bradley.
She said: “He said he was going to shop and then two minutes later a neighbour up the road came running down and saying ‘Bradley is up a tree’.
“He has ADHD and he was 40 something feet up a skinny flimsy tree – every time he tried to climb down the branches would snap.
“We said ‘what are you doing up a tree?’ and he said he had heard a cat.”
Ms Gander, 31, praised the firefighters who spent nearly two and a half hours rescuing her son on Friday afternoon.
They used different vehicles and pieces of equipment as they tried to scale the tree to reach him and the cat.
West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (WSFRS) initially attended with ladders but could not prop them up on the unstable treeas the tree was too unstable.
They then drafted in another team from East Sussex with a cherry picker but they could not get close enough.
In the end the team from WSFRS used rope rescue units to retrieve Bradley and Tilly.
Ms Gander said: “I was shocked he had managed to climb that high, it was only a thin tree.
“Everyone was relieved when he was back down and there was a big crowd.
“Everyone was worried about him but all he was worried about was the cat and he was like ‘yeah, but what about the cat?’.”
Tilly was rescued two hours after Bradley when the crew managed to grab her and was returned her to her owner.
Ms Gander said Bradley was now thinking of fundraising ideas to say thank you to the fire service for saving him.
At the same time, East Sussex firefighters were looking for a cat trapped beneath floorboards in Hove and saving a squirrel stuck up a telegraph pole in Brighton.
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