UPDATE: (8 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, 2023): One of the kittens rescued from a house fire on Monday night is getting a forever home!
The Charleston Fire Department made an effort to save four cats from an abandoned house fire on Grant Street on Monday night. Two of the cats unfortunately died from smoke inhalation, but the other two cats are recovering from the fire.
One of these cats, a young kitten, is being adopted by the Charleston Fire Department’s Fire Chief, and the other kitten is still being treated for its injuries at the Kanawha Valley Veterinary Emergency Hospital, but Lieutenant Fire Marshal Richard Symns said it should be up for adoption.
“We try to do our best to keep the animals alive. If you actually see us when we respond to a scene, to a fire, sometimes you see us actually resuscitating cats. We have basically a little oxygen mask that we can put on animals,” Symns said.
The kitten that is staying at the fire station doesn’t have a name yet, and firefighters said that the kittens are lucky to be alive. The two surviving kittens are both between five and six weeks old.
The mother cat and another kitten were the two victims of the fire.
“This incident was very unfortunate. This is not something that we run into all the time, but when we do run into a situation like this, we try our best to solve the situation. Luckily, we were able to save two of the cats. It’s unfortunate that we lost two as well,” Symns said.
The cause of the abandoned structure fire is under investigation by the Charleston Fire Department.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) — Two kittens were rescued Monday night from an abandoned house fire in Charleston.
The kittens got to spend the night at the firehouse in Charleston.
While the two kittens survived the fire along Grant St., another kitten and a cat died.
The fire was mostly in the back of the abandoned house and in the attic. It did do some damage to the house next door.
No other injuries are being reported.
