U.D. family escapes blaze after pet cat sounds alarm
UPPER DARBY >> Strong winds made work difficult for the Upper Darby Fire Department Wednesday morning when a home erupted in flames, displacing a family of three.
The family was alerted to the fire by the distressed meows of their pet cat.
Firefighters responded around 10:20 a.m. to find the second story of a twin family home engulfed in flames on the 900 block of Anderson Avenue in Upper Darby where one individual was taken to an area hospital for observation after searching for their two pet cats through heavy black smoke.
Officials said the feline was making loud and unusual noises on the second floor and when the homeowner opened the door to the front-facing bedroom to find open flames, the cat fled frantically downstairs.
“The cat was the one that alerted the homeowners,” said Upper Darby Deputy Fire Chief James Johnson.
Three residents were home at the time of the fire. They were scrambling to find the two pet cats before exiting the home. Johnson said that after the family had escaped to the street, one of the animals broke loose from the owner’s grasp.
“The one cat jumped out of their arms and ran back into the home,” Johnson said.
The animal remained unaccounted for Wednesday evening.
Firefighters worked diligently to tackle the blaze, extinguishing the brunt and placing it under control by 10:59 a.m. Fighting the fire proved to be difficult with the high winds, so much so that a second alarm was declared for additional manpower to stop the spread to an adjacent, attached residence. The adjacent home was not seriously damaged in the fire and officials said the homeowners were not displaced.
“I attribute keeping it to the first house to the aggressiveness of the firefighters, they really knocked it out fast,” Johnson said.
In the street, one family member attempted to run back into the burning building in pursuit of the feline that fought from her grip, but was deterred by neighbors from doing so before the fire departments arrived.
Once the fire had been knocked down, more than nearly 50 firefighters continued to put water on hot spots, while others worked to open up the roof of the structure. Buckets of debris were poured out the window from the second floor bedroom in which the fire left nothing but a black, charred skeleton of a home.
Outside, a Blessed Virgin Mary statue was left propped against the front porch as a silent protector, nearby a large and heavy projection screen television had been moved to the curb by firefighters to make room within the narrow duplex.
The group Red Paws, which assists displaced pets and their people, helped in finding one of the two cats safe and sound in the basement. Officials were confident the second cat would eventually come out of hiding without injury.
Reports of loud cracking noises were initially reported as ammunition exploding in the fire, but Johnson said the cracking noises were caused by electrical wires popping loudly.
The cause for the blaze has not yet been determined. It remains an open investigation.
Assisting in the second alarm were fire departments from Manoa, Havertown, Springfield, Penn Wynne, Darby and Lansdowne.