A cat named Prince is being praised for giving his own life to save a sleeping resident of a burning Maryland home.
According to a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS), the fire broke out on Westside Drive in Gaithersburg on Sunday. The cat kept scratching the resident as he was sleeping around 4 a.m., according to The Washington Post.
A man and two women noticed something on fire and encountered thick smoke that trapped them outside. They took refuge in the master bedroom on the second floor and called the basement dwellers and 911 for help.
The basement dweller grabbed a painter’s ladder from outside and placed it near a bedroom window, allowing the three people trapped inside to escape.
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Prince is credited with saving three lives during a house fire in Maryland on Sunday. (@mcfrsPIO/X)
“The smoke just got thicker and thicker and the next thing we knew the house was on fire,” the cat’s owner, who did not want to be identified, told DC News Now. “If Prince hadn’t woken us up we would all be dead. He truly saved our lives. I believe he is our angel.”
The cat “jumped from its owner’s arms and ran back inside the building,” Pete Pillinger of MCFRS said on X, adding that the cat “was likely engulfed in smoke and was found dead by firefighters on the second floor.” In a previous post, Pillinger called Prince a “hero cat” and noted that his owners had “full credit” for saving them.
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Prince fled the burning home but is believed to have returned looking for someone else. (@mcfrsPIO/X)
Fire officials said at the time that the home’s fire alarms had been removed or disabled due to painting work.
Piringer told The Post that the fire started on the first floor of the three-story townhouse and appears to have started due to a faulty freezer motor before spreading to the kitchen.
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The family of four was evacuated but no one was injured.
