A parrot has been hailed a hero after squawking “fire” to wake his family as a blaze tore through their home.

Barbara Klein, 63, husband Larry, 61, granddaughter Kaitlyn, six, were fast asleep when pet bird Louie woke them at their home in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Louie tragically lost his life along with the family’s four dogs.

But Barbara said: “Louie is a true hero. If it weren’t for him I probably would have been sleeping during the fire.

“He started squawking ‘fire’. He had never said that word before in my recollection.

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“When I woke up, the fire was starting to spread across the living room floor.”

Larry tried to fight the fire when it started in the early hours of February 3 – but had to be pulled from the blaze after collapsing trying to rescue the puppies.

Barbara added: ‘He kept saying he couldn’t breathe and I was shouting at him to leave the house. I told him to get down and he crawled out.

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I pulled him out of the fire. Then we got in the car and drove out of the driveway.

“He burned his hands, face and nose and they had to clean his lungs out. He was put into a coma. It was a miracle he survived.

“The community came together and gave Kaitlyn a birthday party with 100 people invited at the McDonald’s in town,’ said Barbara.

"Larry got out of hospital a bit early to go to the party.

“People have reached out with clothing and someone donated an apartment for three months. The man who donated the apartment also gave us a baby parrot as well. We call him Louie Jr.”

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