Bergen Record
By CHANI KATZEN, Staff Writer
Date: 01-27-1999, Wednesday
WESTWOOD -- Thanks in part to an anxious cat, sleeping residents
were alerted to a blaze that gutted their home early Tuesday, fire
officials said.
Except for the cat and another feline, everyone escaped the 6:30 a.m.
blaze, which destroyed the Ruckner Road home.
Fire Chief Rick Woods said the blaze began when clothing in a laundry
basket placed too close to a furnace ignited.
Joann Strippoli was in the first floor of her split-level home when she
smelled smoke, Woods said. Then her cat started "screaming" and didn't
stop until Strippoli went into the laundry room, the fire chief said.
The flames spread quickly from the room, which also contained a furnace
and hot-water heater, Woods said.
Strippoli dialed 911 and woke her husband and three children. They
escaped unharmed.
"When we pulled up a couple of minutes later, there were visible flames
and an orange glow at the front door and the basement window," Woods
said. "They pretty much made it out in time. If she had waited a couple
of minutes, it could have been a lot worse."
Firefighters took more than an hour to extinguish the blaze.
The heaviest damage to the vinyl-siding home was on the first floor,
although the entire house sustained heavy smoke and fire damage, Woods
said.
The Red Cross was making arrangements for the family to sleep in a motel
Tuesday night, Woods said. Although the fire was accidental, it is under
investigation, he said.
