NO DUCKING THEIR DUTY WOMAN, FIREFIGHTERS RESCUE TRIO OF BABY BIRDS.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Call it a case of fowl play.

A trio of panicked ducklings, whose mother and sibling were killed by a hit-and-run driver as they waddled across Long Canyon Road, found themselves in even deeper trouble when two sought refuge in a storm drain.

Fearing the ducklings' goose was cooked, Juliana Simpson-Katz, a resident of the nearby Wood Ranch subdivision who had witnessed the accident, did what any good Samaritan would in her case: she dialed 911.

And the Ventura County Fire Department responded.

``They showed up in this big firetruck and the lights were going,'' said Simpson-Katz, who has taken temporary custody of the birds. ``They're definitely heroes. I wanted to hug and kiss them, but I was afraid I'd scare them.''

The rescue was a first for the department, which typically doesn't respond to duck calls. But, with spare time on their hands after fighting a structure fire earlier in the day, the firefighters made an exception.

``We're trained to do these things,'' said Capt. Jim Andrews, one of three firefighters who rescued the birds. ``One of the things we do is urban search and rescue; in a way, this was practice more than heroics.''

As Simpson-Katz cooed over the ducklings she keeps in a plastic tub cushioned with paper towels, she recounted Wednesday's tragic turn of events.

She and her mother, Annelies Simpson, 75, also of Wood Ranch, were driving north along Long Canyon Road near Canyon View Drive when they spotted the ducks meandering across the street.

``All of the sudden, in front of me I saw a mother duck and this trail of baby ducks,'' said Simpson-Katz who swerved to avoid the birds. But an SUV behind her struck the mother and a duckling before continuing down the road.

Simpson-Katz quickly turned her vehicle around, jumped out and ran across the four-lane road to the mother duck, cradling her.

``The reason I picked up the mother was because she was still moving, and I didn't want her to die on the hot pavement,'' Simpson-Katz said.

But she and one of her four ducklings died. Meanwhile, in the confusion, two of the surviving ducklings scrambled for safety in a storm drain. That's when Simpson-Katz drove to her sister's home nearby and called 911.

Firefighters arrived as soon as they could after responding to the structure fire. It was then that Andrews, firefighter Jason Hansen and engineer Bill Lambert went to work.

The firefighters pried open a manhole cover and Hansen, wearing a brush jacket, descended into the 3-to-4-foot-deep storm drain. But Simpson-Katz was unprepared for what she saw next.

``They pulled the manhole cover off and black widows came flying,'' she recounted, horrified. ``There were spider webs just everywhere, and I'm thinking those little ducks are down there with black widows.''

The rescue operation started smoothly, at first. There was no problem grabbing the first duck. Hansen nabbed the downy ball and handed it up to Lambert.

But the second baby duck had made its way into another drain line about 8 inches in diameter and there was no way the firefighters could retrieve it. Instead, they moved out of the way, hoping the duckling would turn and head back toward the light, Lambert said. That's exactly what it did.

As the duckling ran toward Hansen, he herded it toward Lambert, who then brought it up to safety.

Lambert credited Simpson-Katz with the rescue.

``The lady is the hero,'' he said. ``She made sure the ducks were taken care of ... she took the time to stop and waited for us to get there.''

On Thursday, the ducklings were adjusting to their new home in the bedroom of Simpson-Katz's son, who is away at camp. At the crack of dawn, she jumped out of bed and ran to check on the survivors.

``I went flying in my son's room, and thanked God they were all right,'' she said cradling one of the ducklings in her cupped hands. ``I took a shower and took the nozzle down and turned it very low and they were jumping in the shower and drinking out of it.''

The shower was followed by a warm blow drying session and then breakfast - duck food that Simpson-Katz had purchased the night before.

``My sister now calls me duck-ula,'' she said, laughing.

Simpson-Katz said she would like to keep the ducklings - at least until her son, Daniel, returns home from camp. Maybe then, she will take them to a local wildlife rescue station.

But she's slowly forming an attachment to the ducklings she calls Huey, Dewey and Louie.

``These (ducklings) are filling a void because I've never been away from my son this long,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Juliana Simpson-Katz dialed 911 to summon Ventura County firefighters to rescue ducklings from a storm drain.

(2) Fire Capt. Jim Andrews, here with Juliana Simpson-Katz, holds a duckling he helped rescue after its mother was killed.

(3) Juliana Simpson-Katz cradles the rescued ducklings.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer