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SCHENECTADY
Six cats, one turtle rescued from Division Street fire
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

   Firefighters saved six cats and a turtle on Friday after extinguishing an electrical fi re that filled two Division Street apartments with smoke.
   One of the pet owners watched as firefighters hooked oxygen masks to each cat and stroked them until they came back to life.
   Deputy Fire Chief Rod Rosate said that the task is actually fairly common for the Schenectady Fire Department. They rescue cats and dogs in more than half of the fires they respond to, he said.
   “Cats we get quite a bit. We got a total of six cats, eventually, from this one,” Rosate said. “That’s got to be some kind of record.”
   All six of the animals survived, a testament to feline hardiness, he added.
   “Cats are tough as nails,” he said. “Give them oxygen and stroke them a little and if you stick with it, they’ll come to in half an hour or so.”
   They’ve found that the technique saves at least half of the cats they find. Dogs don’t do quite as well, because they’re bigger and breathe in far more smoke while firefighters are working their way into the building. But they try to save them all.
   “We just do a sweep like we do for people,” Rosate said, adding that firefighters first rescue all human beings and put out the fire. This time, it took about fi ve minutes to extinguish the blaze and ventilate the building at 349 Division St.
   Then firefighters began searching under couches and beds, because one tenant told them that he had been keeping three cats in his apartment and that the downstairs tenant had cats too.
   “He told us his cats were probably under the bed and sure enough, they were,” Rosate said. “Downstairs, two were hiding and one was unconscious by the door. They were in worse shape, but they came to eventually. We rounded up all the animals and revived them — everything went smooth as silk.”
   Even the turtle survived.
   The best part, Rosate added, was when the downstairs tenant arrived on the scene. Firefighters were able to hand her three squirming, breathing, very alive cats.
   “She was very grateful,” Rosate said.  
  
PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Cat rescue
Schenectady fi refighter Ron Ferro places an oxygen mask on one of two cats rescued from a burning house at 349 Division St. after flames broke out in the living room of the house on Friday. The cats were revived, and there were no reports of injuries.