The Cats Who Smelled Smoke
| While peacefully sleeping in her
home during the early morning hours
of June 14, 1998, Guylaine Labonté never imagined that she would
lose
everything she owned in one day.
At 6:46 a.m., Guylaine's cat, Étoile de Nuit, began meowing loudly. Thinking nothing of it, Guylaine tried to go back to sleep but the persistent feline was determined to wake its owner. Groggy and sleepy-eyed, Guylaine arose to find a fire raging in her bathroom and smoke swirling in her living room. Anxious to alert her neighbours of the fire, Guylaine, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, left to wake her neighbours. She returned to retrieve Étoile de Nuit, but the cat had disappeared. As the fire continued to spread, Guylaine searched frantically for Étoile de Nuit, but fearing for her own life, she was forced to flee the building. The local fire department was quick to get to the scene, but could do little to stop the building from burning to the ground. As she watched her home being completely destroyed, Guylaine pleaded with the fire fighters to help her find Étoile de Nuit. Sensing her distress, an attending police officer approached Guylaine and asked if she could help identify a very frightened cat that had been found close to the building - Étoile de Nuit! Guylaine lost
everything she owned because of the
blaze, which was later determined to have been set by two robbers in
their attempt to cover their tracks. But as she rebuilds her life, she
does so with the help of her faithful and heroic companion,
Étoile de
Nuit. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| On November 21, 2007, a man
escaped the deadly flames and smoke of a
two-alarm San Mateo County house fire after he was awakened from a
sound sleep by his cat. The man went back
to bed, but woke up again to the cat's insistent meowing. When the man got out of bed to attend to the cat, he saw the fire and called 911. The cat was not harmed by the blaze; approximately $60,000 of damage was done to the structure. Two smoke alarms had not gone off. Info from the KTVU News website |
| Gerald Davies, his wife and
23-year-old son were in bed in their house
in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham, when their kitchen cooker caught fire - but
Barney the cat came to the rescue. Six-year-old Barney woke the
family by racing upstairs and making lots of noise. His heroic antics won him a national competition run by the Cats Protection League. The organisation, which rescues and rehomes unwanted and abandoned cats, named Barney cat of the year. Mr and Mrs Davies travelled to London for the ceremony in February 2003. Mr Davies, 56, said the black cat, who has lived with them since he was left to fend for himself by his previous owners, was a winner to them following the fire in August 2002. He said the family were lucky that Barney was nearby on the night of the fire. "There had been an electrical fault on the cooker and the house was filled with smoke - if it hadn't been for Barney we wouldn't be here now," he said. "Normally he doesn't go upstairs but he went up that day and was making a loud noise. The smoke was dangerous and there were fumes from the plastic. We'd only been in here about six days, but Barney went upstairs in the early hours of the morning and woke my son. "He thought the cat wanted to go out, but when my son put the light on he found the house full of smoke. After what he did, he means everything to us - I think we wouldn't be here now because the smoke in the house that night was unbelievable," he added. Info from the BBC UK website |
| Hobbes, a five-year-old orange
tabby cat saved the life of his owner
Sheri Coull, waking her up late one night because her apartment was on
fire. Sheri's smoke detector had failed to go off, but Hobbes'
persistent 'yowling' woke members of the household enabling them to
raise the alarm and vacate the apartment building. Within minutes it
was engulfed in thick smoke and poisonous carbon-monoxide fumes. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Jack, a two-month-old kitten gave
Corrie Owens and her
five-month-old son, Brandon, the best Christmas gift of all. As their
apartment rapidly filled with smoke early Christmas morning, Corrie was
awakened by Jack's persistent meowing and discovered the entire
building was ablaze. While Corrie and Brandon escaped unharmed with
Jack, the fire destroyed all of their belongings and left 14 tenants
homeless. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Ollie, a red Tabby, alerted his
owner Brian Rozee to a fire that
had started from a crack in the family's fireplace. Responding to
Ollie's persistent cries, Mr. Rozee awoke to find the living and dining
rooms filled with smoke. Because of Ollie's actions, the fire was
brought under control and damage was kept to a minimum. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Angel, a five-year-old tabby cat,
owned by Mr. and Mrs. John
Fila, proved to be a guardian angel when she awoke Mrs. Fila and her
son, John, in time to escape a devastating fire which destroyed their
home. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Whiskers, a cat owned by Margaret
Philp, awoke her owner in the
middle of the night to alert her of a fire that was raging in the
kitchen. Whiskers actions enabled Mrs. Philp to alert the rest of the
family and escape unharmed. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Napolean, a Siamese cat, fought,
scratched, and even resorted to
biting, to awaken Marjorie St. Amour when her electric blanket and
mattress smoldered into flames early one morning. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| In 1979, Tarbot, a young cat owned
by Alex
and Marie MacLeod, awoke his
owners in time to escape their burning home. Tarbot leapt onto Mr.
MacLeod while he slept and started digging with his claws until his
masters awoke and made their way to safety. As of 2009, the
MacLeods still live in the same house in Caledonia, Nova Scotia, that
was saved by their heroic cat. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Herman, a Siamese cat saved the
life of his owner, Arthur
Laberee by waking him as a fire was burning throughout the house.
Because of Herman's actions, Mr. Laberee was able to leave his burning
home safely. (Stanstead, Québec) From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Kitty, a three-year-old 'cat with
no name' owned by Rose and
Morris Lavack, was credited with saving the lives of her wners when she
called attention to a fire that had erupted in an upstairs apartment.
(Edmonton, Alberta) From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Jade, a five-year-old Siamese cat
awoke her owner, Mrs. Francis
Jarvis, by repeatedly screaming, clawing, and biting, when a fire broke
out at the rear of the building where they lived. (Cambridge, Ontario) From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Patches, a grey and white cat
owned by Laura Utter, saved Laura
and her father after a fire broke out in the furnace room of their
home. Patches' screams roused Mr. Utter who gathered his young daughter
and the cat and led them outside to safety as the interior of their
house was destroyed. (Burlington, Ontario) From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Tramp, a cat owned by Gail
Bilodeau, saved her owner from
serious harm by waking her from a deep sleep. When Mrs. Biladeau's
electric blanket burst into flames, Tramp woke her owner in time to
save her two children and call the fire department. (Trois Riviers,
Quebec) From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| Jiggs, a young Siamese cat owned
by Mr. and Mrs. McGregor roused
the sleeping family when a fire broke out early Christmas morning in
1969.
While one resident died in the fire, Mr. and Mrs. McGregor, their two
young sons and a grandmother escaped the flames. Jiggs had collapsed in
the apartment and had to be taken outside and revived. From the Purina Animal Hall of Fame |
| A woman pregnant with twins and a
man sleeping on a couch with her were awakened by their pet cat when
smoke started filling the room during a fire early Monday in their new
home in a Chicago suburb. The woman, pregnant with twins, was
uncomfortable so she and the man had been sleeping on a living room
couch. “The cat started bugging him and when he woke up he noticed that the living room was filling with smoke,’’ the Assistant Fire Chief said. "The man initially tried to put the fire out by himself with an extinguisher, but couldn’t, so he called 911. The couple, the cat and their pet dog were then able to escape on their own and were out by the time fire crews arrived and saw smoke and flames shooting out the back of the house." From the Chicago Sun-Times, 2010 |