When firefighters in Montecito, California received a call about some birds that got themselves trapped in a resident’s fireplace, they figured they’d just have to grab a couple of them and release them outside. But it turned out there were far too many birds to grab them by hand.

Emergency crews arrived to find more than 1,000 small swifts trapped in the fireplace, blocked in by the fireplace screen, according to the Montecito Fire Protection District. At first they just left the birds, hoping they’d fly back up the chimney overnight. They didn’t.

So when firefighters returned the next day, they came up with a plan to get the birds out of the fireplace and out of the house: They put together a huge enclosed chute that ran from the fireplace to the back door, the department says. Once the birds figured out the chute was their ticket to freedom, they all left.

Has anything ever come down your chimney?