Smoka the 'Miracle Cat' Survives 26 Days Buried Under Fire Wreckage

Sep 10th 2009

The story of a cat named Smoka who survived 26 days buried under tons of fire debris has captivated the nation. "Nine lives or not, this cat had no business being alive," Dennie Fitzgerald told Paw Nation.

Fitzgerald, from Franklin, Ohio, was watching TV at 4:38 in the morning of August 10th when the television suddenly turned off, he told Paw Nation. Suspecting a blown fuse, Fitzgerald investigated and discovered a fire brewing. He immediately woke his tenants, one of whom was Sandy LaPierre and her cat Smoka. "But Smoka wouldn't come out," said Fitzgerald. "I had to force the cat's owner down the stairs because she didn't want to leave her cat."

LaPierre told Paw Nation, "When my landlord Dennie kicked the door down, it scared Smoka and she panicked and ran under the bed." The year-and-a-half-old cat, Smoka, who had her name long before the fire, has been with LaPierre since she was a six-week old kitten.

According to Fitzgerald, the building, constructed in 1890 with solid oak beams, burned for six hours and collapsed. "Five gas lines erupted," he said. "The fire department had to use 30,000 gallons of water on it to put the fire out."

"I thought she was gone," LaPierre said of her cat. "I couldn't hardly eat or sleep. I had people out looking for her."

Nothing, it seemed, could have survived a fire of that magnitude.