Woman Saves Some Of Her Cats From Fire Morgan Acres Volunteer Firefighters Find House Engulfed In Flames

Fire destroyed a Morgan Acres home Monday, injuring a resident who saved some of her cats from the flames.

The woman may have been cooking at 5:44 p.m. when the fire started at 7020 N. Freya, authorities said.

Neighbor Misty Dry said she stepped outside and saw “a big ball of fire.”

“We heard screaming and hollering,” said Frank Maravilla, who lives in an adjacent home, which he sprayed with a garden hose. “I was trying to keep my house from burning down.”

Morgan Acres Fire Chief Scott Blystone said investigators hadn’t had a chance to interview the victim to verify the cause of the fire.

Although Maravilla complained of a slow response by Morgan Acres volunteer firefighters, Blystone said he arrived four minutes after the first report and the house was engulfed in flames.

“It was already gone,” Blystone said.

The woman’s first name wasn’t available. But neighbors said she and her husband, Pat Corn, moved onto the block about six months ago.

As firefighters doused stubborn flames, neighbors admired two cats and three kittens in a pen across the street.

“She ran back into the house to get them,” Maravilla said. “Imagine that!”

A boy, who saw smoke and rode his bicycle to the Corn home, said he talked with the injured woman before she was taken away by ambulance.

She had suffered a cut on her arm and was concerned because she hadn’t managed to rescue all her cats, according to 15-year-old Nick Hill.

“She said she was cooking grease and it exploded,” Hill said.

The woman was being treated late Monday at Deaconess Medical Center.

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