One person was critically injured and two cats were killed in a fire on Cape Cod early Thursday morning.
The Yarmouth Fire Department said they received a 911 call at 1:49 a.m. Thursday from a neighbor reporting a fire and the heavy smell of smoke at a home on Astor Way. The neighbor said someone was still inside the home.
Firefighters arrived within minutes and saw smoke coming from the rear of the building. Mutual aid assistance was called in from neighboring Hyannis and Dennis, with an additional ambulance from Brewster.
Fire crews entered the home to search for occupants, and found one person in a bedroom on the first floor. That person was removed from the home, treated by a Yarmouth ambulance crew and taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, where they remain in critical condition.
A second person was able to escape the home from a bedroom window was also taken to Cape Cod Hospital for treatment by a Brewster ambulance. Their condition was not immediately known.
Firefighters were able to locate the flames in the basement of the home, and the fire was brought under control in about 20 minutes. They remained at the scene for another two hours to conduct salvage and overhaul operations.
Subsequent searches of the home located two cats who had died in the fire.
The home sustained smoke and water damage as a result of the blaze.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by Yarmouth fire officials, with assistance from the State Fire Marshal's Office.
