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PHILADELPHIA (CBS)-- A fire call in HavertownTownship turned into a rescue where firefighters saved nearly a dozen baby chicks. Baby chicks chirping is a sound that five-year-old Celia and four-year-old Isaac live for.

They are some of the 84 students at the Manoa Nursery School in Havertown that watched the chicks hatch.

"When I saw it, one was hatched and one was trying to break out of his shell and he was lonely," said Celia.

On Tuesday night, all 11-day-old chicks almost lost their lives at the Manoa Community Church School in a fire. School director Tami Funch got the phone call from one of the elders who was in a meeting at the church.

"He said, 'Tami, you have to come back to school, there's been a fire in the office' and I said, 'My office?' and he said 'yes,'" Funch said.

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Five volunteer fire companies rushed to the school on Eagle Road. There were hard-wired smoke detectors that told firefighters exactly where to find them.

"Thankfully, it went off immediately and thankfully, because it's hard-wired, we were able to pinpoint exactly where the fire, the smoke was," said Funch.

Students say that's a good thing.

"Because our chickies are safe," one student said.

They are so grateful to the firefighters that they decided to put it in writing and leave them with a message.

"Thank you for saving the chickies," said Isaac and Celia.

Manoa Fire Company Chief Michael Norman, who was on scene, told Eyewitness News by phone what saving the birds meant.

"It's always nice when we hear thank you for doing our job, especially from little kids, it means a lot," Norman said.