Scarlett: The Stray Cat Who Walked Into a Burning Building Five Times

The building was on fire. She went in anyway. Then she went in again. Four times, she went in and came out carrying a kitten in her mouth. The fifth time, her eyes were sealed shut from the burns. She still found the last one.

March 30, 1996

A fire broke out in a garage in East New York, Brooklyn. A stray cat had made a nest in the building and had five kittens. When the fire department arrived, they found the building burning and a cat running in and out of the flames.

Firefighter David Giannelli watched her make five trips. Each time she came out, she had a kitten. She was badly burned by the end of it. Her paws were blistered. Her coat was scorched. The fur around her face was gone. Her eyes had been seared shut by the heat.

Despite this, after each trip she would touch her nose to each kitten in turn, as if counting. When all five were there, she collapsed near them.

The Vet, and What They Found

The North Shore Animal League took her in. They named her Scarlett, after the color of her burns. Her injuries were documented in detail: first and second-degree burns over most of her body, paws blistered and raw, corneas severely damaged, one ear entirely destroyed.

The prognosis was uncertain. She required months of treatment. The kittens required their own separate care. One of the five kittens, the smallest and most fragile, did not survive.

Scarlett did. The four remaining kittens did.

7,000 Letters

When the story broke, the North Shore Animal League received approximately 7,000 calls and letters requesting to adopt Scarlett. People wrote from across the United States and from other countries. The volume of mail was so large the organization had to create a dedicated process just to manage the adoption requests.

They placed her with a family in Long Island who had experience with cats requiring long-term care. She lived there for the rest of her life, eventually going deaf and developing a heart condition. She died in October 2008 at approximately 13 years old.

The four surviving kittens were placed in pairs: two adopted together, two adopted separately. All found homes.

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Sources

• Wikipedia — Scarlett (cat) — Sourced account of the March 30, 1996 fire, the five rescue trips, the documented injuries, and the 7,000 adoption requests
• North Shore Animal League America — The organization that treated Scarlett's burns, managed the adoption process, and placed her with her permanent family in Long Island
• History.com — Scarlett the Cat — Historical account of the March 30, 1996 Brooklyn fire, Scarlett's documented injuries including burned paws and destroyed corneas, and the months of treatment before she was healthy enough to be placed in a permanent home
• BBC News — The cat who saved her kittens from a fire — BBC retrospective on Scarlett's five trips into the burning building and the impact her story had on public understanding of maternal instinct in animals

More true animal stories: From Paw to Tail Blog