CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Cambridge man recorded the emotional moment a firefighter returned two cats to their tearful owner after a massive fire last weekend.
The cats, named Mac and Cheese, somehow survived the fire that damaged 16 buildings and displaced nearly 125 people.
Casey was one of the dozens of firefighters on the scene looking for hot spots when he was approached by Christina Jeffrey asking about her cats.
Cambridge Fire Lt. Brian Casey said he didn’t think there was any way he would find those cats alive.
“I said, ‘I’m not how safe your house is. I’m not sure we can get inside but, we’ll take a look and see what we see,’” he recalled.
Jeffery lived in the building right across the street from where the fire began. Her home was damaged, but Casey was able to get inside.
“While I was looking around the bed, under the bed, under the covers to see if the cats were hiding anywhere, I heard them behind me in the closet. I turned around and they were both kind of huddled in the closet,” he said.
Mac and Cheese had survived all the heat and smoke.
“I didn’t expect really much in the way of finding them alive in the fire. The fire burned for 18 or 20 hours, I was actually quite surprised,” Casey said.
Casey scooped the cats up, one by one, and returned them to Jeffrey in a reunion serendipitously captured on camera by neighbor Justin Khoo.
“When I brought the cats out, she broke down, obviously tears of joy in the street,” Casey said. “They were very excited. Tears of joy.”
It’s a beautiful moment and Casey says it was the least he could do for a family that had lost almost everything.
"I'm forever grateful for the fire department and other emergency and disaster relief teams who pulled us out of that horror largely unharmed," Jeffery said. "I hope the video brings a moment of happiness in this very hard time."
Mac and Cheese are doing well after the fire.