Community Corner

West County Firefighters Help Rescue Opossum on a Hot Roof

The nonprofit Bi-State Wildlife Hotline of Missouri & Illinois rescued the little guy with the help of the emergency workers.

Patch reader Angel Wintrode, president and founder of the Bi-State Wildlife Hotline of Missouri & Illinois, sent along these pictures and an explanation of a wildlife rescue on Saturday that wouldn't have been possible without the help of the West County EMS & Fire crew.

Wintrode told us that the organization got word that a baby opossum had fallen from a tree branch onto a hot roof and couldn't get down.

"The house was two stories, and we didn't have a ladder than tall. The Battalion Chief agreed to meet us at the resident’s address (1195 Wicklow Road, in Manchester) and allow us to use their ladders if we could meet them on site.

"We sent our rescue staff and met them there and successfully retrieved the baby opossum. She has burns on the pads of her feet from the hot roof, and she was overheated in general, but otherwise she looks pretty good. It won’t be long before she is re-released to the wild."

Bi-State Wildlife Hotline of Missouri & Illinois is a charity that runs on private donations. You can reach them at 1-855-WILD-HELP.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Town And Country-Manchester