Two Cats Rescued, Revived From House Fire on Fairfield Woods Road *Video Added*

Firefighters rescued and revived two cats from a house fire on Fairfield Woods Road late Friday afternoon. Two dogs and a snake also survived.

"Two cats were injured and rescued unresponsive and were treated with oxygen and revived," said Assistant Fire Chief Stephen Curry, the incident commander. Curry said a male occupant of the house, who was not identified, suffered from a little smoke inhalation but declined treatment and was fine.

Curry said the occupant was outside the house when firefighters arrived and apparently had managed to get two dogs out of the house, but the two cats and a snake remained inside. Firefighters found one cat in the basement and found the other cat and the snake on the first floor of the Cape Cod-style house at 920 Fairfield Woods Road.

Curry said the fire started in a first-floor master bedroom and that the bedroom suffered fire damage, while the rest of the house had smoke and heat damage. Curry said the house was not habitable and estimated the damage at $75,000. He said the homeowners, identified on tax records as Edward S. and Mary A. Huydic, had been offered assistance from the Red Cross, but also had relatives in the area and hadn't decided what to do.

"There was heavy smoke coming out the front bedroom window with a little bit of flame and heavy smoke coming out of the end of the house," Curry, who was first on the scene, said of conditions when firefighters arrived. He said firefighters had the blaze under control in about 20 minutes and that the cause of the fire was under investigation by Fairfield Fire Marshal William Kessler.

The two cats were in cages in back of an Animal Control Department van, and Bill McDonagh, an Animal Control Officer, said they would be taken to the town's animal shelter on One Rod Highway. "They seem to be doing very well," McDonagh said, adding that firefighters washed out their eyes and gave them oxygen.

McDonagh said he didn't think it would be necessary to take the cats, which he said were a Siamese and a straight domestic short-hair, to an animal hospital but planned to evaluate them further once they got to the animal shelter.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze by multiple 911 calls, Curry said.

Part of Fairfield Woods Road was closed while firefighters battled the blaze.

The house, built in 1950, sits on .34 acre and was most recently assessed at $368,130, according to tax records.