Cat alerts family to blaze
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By Steven Martens | Wednesday, January 17, 2007 |
Kevin E. Schmidt/QUAD-CITY TIMES The home of Carole Behr at 104 S. 11th St. in Clinton, Iowa, was nearly destroyed by fire early Tuesday. Behr and her daughter were awakened by their cat, Tigger, and were rescued from a second-story window by firefighters.
CLINTON, Iowa — Call it cat karma.
A Clinton woman and her daughter reaped the benefits Tuesday when the cat they adopted from the Humane Society last year woke them in time to be rescued by firefighters from their burning home.
Carole Behr of 104 S. 11th St. said their cat, Tigger, jumped on her just before 5:30 a.m. and sat on her until she woke up. She noticed the cat was staring out the door of her second-floor room.
“I thought maybe the cat heard something,” she said.
When Behr went to investigate, she saw smoke in the hallway.
Unable to get down the stairs because of the fire, Behr woke her 15-year-old daughter, Connie Chapman, and called 911. Behr said she stayed on the phone with the dispatcher, giving directions on how firefighters could find her and her daughter. She said firefighters used a ladder to rescue them from the second-story window.
Behr and her daughter were treated at Mercy Medical Center-Clinton and released. Tigger, who jumped from the second-story window, also was unharmed.
“I told my daughter, ‘See, you saved the cat and now the cat saved you,’ ” Behr said.
The fire destroyed much of the home and melted the vinyl siding off one side of a house next door.
Behr said it appeared she and her daughter would be able to save some items from the house.
“We got out safe, so that’s good,” she said.
No cause for the fire has been determined, and no damage estimate was available Tuesday. A firefighter who slipped on the ice and suffered a back injury also was treated and released, Battalion Chief Ken Schumacher said.
Another of Behr’s neighbors, Clinton City Council member Ron Mallicoat, At-Large, praised the efforts of the Clinton Fire Department. Mallicoat has called for the city to adopt a building code after a fire destroyed a Clinton apartment building last month.
“As far as I’m concerned, this does nothing but further my thought that we need a building code,” Mallicoat said.
Mallicoat said a building code would give firefighters more confidence in the quality of work that is done when residences are renovated.
Firefighters also were called to a second fire at 534 2nd Ave. S. at 8:16 a.m. That fire, caused by a child who set fire to a mattress while playing with a lighter, caused about $15,000 in damage to the home, according to the fire department. The home was occupied by 11 people, Schumacher said. The owner of the home was treated at the hospital and released.
Because firefighters were busy at both fire scenes, the department issued a mutual aid call to Camanche and Fulton fire departments to provide standby at the Central Fire Station.
The Gateway Chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting all 13 victims of Tuesday’s fires, Red Cross Executive Director Dave Frett said.
Steven Martens can be contacted at (563) 659-2595 or smartens@qctimes.com.
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