Cat rescued from blaze
Photo: Armstrong Spallumcheen Fire Department
Not only did the Armstrong Spallumcheen Fire Department put out the fire, they went to great lengths to save the family pet.
Flames were pouring out of a Spallumcheen home on the 4800 block of Highway 97A when firefighters arrived Tuesday afternoon.
Fire Chief Ian Cummings said the call came in shortly before 1 p.m.
“We actually had a really quick response,” says Cummings. “All three of our full-time members were at the hall, plus we had some officers and other firefighters doing some random tasks, so we got out of the hall extremely quickly.”
When they arrived, flames were coming out of the main floor windows.
“We did a fairly quick knock down, but it had spread into the attic,” Cummings says.
Firefighters were on scene for eight hours.
Members provided medical assistance to the two occupants of the home who were suffering from smoke inhalation before they were taken to hospital.
“About four or five hours into the operation, one of our members heard a cat in the basement,” Cummings says, adding at that point the basement had several feet of water in it.
“We couldn’t get to the cat safely, so we set up a pump and we pumped the basement out until it was safe for one of our members to go in and retrieve the cat. It was cold, wet and dirty, but other than that it was pretty good. We had a picture sent to us this morning of a happy, dry warm cat, so the guys are pretty happy about that.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
