10 cats die in fire at Enoch home just 2 days after it flooded

Scene of a residential fire on Quick Draw Lane, Enoch, Utah, AUg. 3, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

ENOCH — A fire broke out Tuesday afternoon inside a home in Enoch that had been affected by flooding just two days earlier.

Enoch City Police Chief Jackson Ames said that shortly after 2:30 p.m., emergency responders were dispatched to a report of a structure fire at a house on Quick Draw Lane.

“When we got here, we could see smoke coming out some of the back windows,” Ames told Cedar City News at the scene. “One of the glass windows was broken. We could see flames and smoke, so we started putting water on it with some hoses from the back.”

The occupants of the home were able to safely evacuate and nobody was injured; however, 10 of the 15 or so cats that lived inside the home died in the blaze, Cedar City Fire Chief Mike Phillips said afterward.

Neighbors said the homeowner, who lives there with her elderly mother, is regarded as a loving caregiver and a rescuer of cats.

A man who’d been working doing flood cleanup in the basement said he grabbed as many cats as he could and tossed them outside into the fresh air. However, he said several of the animals appeared disoriented and even went back inside the smoke-filled residence.

Phillips, who said the fire appeared to have originated within the kitchen area, described its cause as “unknown accidental.”

This report is based on information provided by fire officials and other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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