The five-alarm fire that overtook an apartment building that was under construction in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston became a major national headline this week. It involved daring escapes and rescues, a city struggling to find ways to properly thank the firefighters who contained the blaze—and at least one cat who was found nearby with serious burns, but her purr intact.
The Montrose Vet Clinic treated the animal—whom they dubbed “Phoenix,” naturally—after it was brought to their doors by someone who discovered it in a nearby townhouse’s garage. The Houston Chronicle reports that Phoenix looks like she’s been through a heck of an ordeal, but that she’s a friendly cat who’s purring and eating on her own.
She has severe burns with the fur on her body singed down to only a quarter inch and her eyes are badly swollen.
“We don’t know if she will be blind,” the practice manager at the clinic said of Phoenix, whose name was inspired by her rise from the ashes of the $50 million apartment complex that was destroyed in the fire.
One member of staff said in an email, “She smells of ashes and burnt hair, but she’s still purring!”
Vets have received no word on a possible owner for Phoenix, who is potentially a stray that wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time.
The cause of the fire was determined to be welders on the roof who accidentally sparked a small fire, which quickly grew to a massive blaze because of wind conditions. It took down the $50 million building, took two and a half hours to contain, and didn’t claim the life of Phoenix the cat.
(AP Photo/ Christopher Laski)
