David Radey was sleeping soundly when he got the call at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Responding to emergencies is part of his job, so he jumped in the company van and rushed over to White Rock from his home in Pitt Meadows.

Suzanne Burke was waiting. She’d been up all night, trying to get help for hours.

Timbit, a three-month-old kitten, was trapped.

After the fire department and SPCA turned down Burke’s pleas for help, Milani Plumbing dispatched Radey for the dramatic rescue: the curious two-pound female calico had become stuck in a furnace vent while Burke was cat-sitting for her father.

Radey, 33, used his sewer camera, a snakelike video device intended for inspecting pipes, to locate Timbit in a small gap in the joist space under the floor.

“I was able to pinpoint exactly where we needed to start to do the search and rescue with my locating device,” he said. “I don’t think they designed it for the purpose I used it for.”

A harrowing seven hours later, Timbit was free.

The owner of a black and grey eight-month-old kitten called Shinobi, Radey worked as quickly as possible to locate Timbit, especially upon hearing her faint cries. “As soon as I heard the meows, I’d start working a little bit harder, trying to get the cat out of there ASAP.” When Burke saw the kitten’s tiny face, covered in dust and drywall, on the sewer camera’s monitor, she burst into tears.

But Radey denied he’s a hero.

“I’m no one special or anything like that,” he said. “I was just out there to do my job and help people the way I was brought up.”

zmcknight@vancouversun.com