Update: Cat Only Casualty of High-Heat Elizabeth Road Blaze

Friday Morning Update

The Fire Marshal's office is still investigating the cause of Thursday night's fire at an Elizabeth Road home, but Marshal Steve Trella said they are "confident there were no criminal aspects to it."

Trella said the residents, who were packing up items to be moved to their new apartment, possibly left an item on the stove before they left for the evening.

The stove was nearly melted to the ground in the fire, and there was other damage to kitchen, but the blaze appeared to have caused no major structural issues to the house, according to Trella.

The Meriden Housing Authority, which owns the home, has secured the property, Trella said.

Original Story

City firefighters put out an Elizabeth Road house fire Thursday night that got so hot at one point it allegedly made all the kitchen furniture combust – and also took the life of the family pet.

Neighbors smelled smoke coming from a house at 97 Elizabeth Road, part of the Yale Acres moderate income housing development, at around 7 p.m. Thursday, according to Assistant Chief Robert Burdick. They went outside, saw the home's kitchen ablaze through the front window of the home, and called the Fire Department.

From neighbors' description of what they saw, the kitchen appeared to have had a "flashover" according to Burdick, which means the temperatures in the room got so hot they ignited nearly everything combustible in the kitchen at once. The fire then started to die down when it sucked up all the available oxygen in the room.

When firefighters arrived, the fire kicked up again.

"We had to force our entry into the building and the fire started to come up again because obviously when we went in the door we let in fresh oxygen," Burdick said. The blaze was still oxygen starved enough that firefighters extinguished it quickly – in about 5-10 minutes, Burdick said.

The kitchen was the only room damaged by fire, but the rest of the home and its contents suffered heat, smoke, and water damage. Neighbors' homes received some smoke, but no other damage.

The were no people home, but a pet cat was in the house. Firefighters pulled it from the home and tried to save the cat, to no avail.

"We tried CPR and oxygen on the cat, but it was no use," Burdick said.

Fire officials were still investigating the cause of the blaze at about 8 p.m. Thursday. Burdick said the fire started in the kitchen.

The home's resident, a young woman, arrived at the unit after the blaze was extinguished, firefighters said.

She had reportedly been moving out of the home to a new apartment, and her belongings were packed up in boxes and bags inside, according to Burdick. She had left the house about 45 minutes prior to the fire, firefighters said.

The woman cried outside as firefighters walked through the home to make sure the fire was completely out.

Details to come.