A pet cat alerted a Wonder Lake-area couple to a fire in their new house early this morning, saving their lives, a fire official said.
Firefighters were called to the blaze in the 7600 block of Brook Drive in an unincorporated area near Wonder Lake just after midnight to find a single-family home with smoke and flames at the rear and the couple who lived there standing outside with their cat and dog, said Wonder Lake Fire Protection Assistant Chief Mike Weber.
Rather than smoke detectors, “the cat is the one who woke them,” Weber said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation but isn’t considered suspicious.
The blaze was put under control in less than half an hour, but the recently rehabbed home, which the couple had moved into in a few months ago, sustained about $70,000 in damage, and was left uninhabitable, Weber said.
The fire started in the back of the house, while the couple were both sleeping on a couch in a front room. The woman is pregnant with twins, Weber said.
The man was awakened when the cat “alerted them” and woke them up, Weber said.
The man tried to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, possibly delaying his calling 911 and allowing the fire to spread, Weber said.
The fire destroyed a number of baby items stored in a back room, he said.
About 30 firefighters from Wonder Lake and other area fire departments fought the blaze, Weber said.
Those departments included Fox Lake, Hebron, Richmond, Spring Grove, Woodstock, Crystal Lake and Nunda, and were needed to bring in enough water to fight the fire in an area that doesn’t have hydrants, Weber said.
Crews from Cary and Marengo also staffed Wonder Lake firehouses in the several hours it took firefighters to put out and investigate the fire.
Read the original article from Tribune News Services.