On March 1, a Roosevelt, New Jersey woman’s fight against an eviction notice turned deadly when she set fire to the house she shared with several cats.
The unidentified woman and her cats were killed in the fire, which began around 11:10 a.m. after a standoff with police who had come to evict her.
After the house’s owner failed several times to evict the woman, state police went to the house to serve her with an eviction notice. The owner hoped to sell the property.
The woman refused to leave and threatened to blow up the house.
According to Lieutenant Lawrence Peele, the woman lit the fire by turning on the gas.
When troopers saw smoke coming from the house, they attempted to evacuate the woman, but she refused. A short time later, the house was engulfed in flames.
Firefighters from several departments responded to the Cedar Court home and attempted to put out the fire. It took them several hours to extinguish the blaze, which they finally did around 1:35 p.m., but by that time, the house had burned down and the flames had spread to a neighboring house.
According to the state marshal, several firefighters were also injured in the fire.
A portion of neighbor Emma Quackenbush’s house, where she had lived for over two decades, was also damaged by the fire. Quackenbush told reporters that she had lost everything in the fire and that her house, while still standing, was uninhabitable.
Police evacuated neighbors during the standoff after the cat lady threatened to blow up the house.
Officers discovered the woman’s body, as well as the bodies of several cats, after putting out the fire. Authorities have no idea how many animals she had living with her. The deceased woman worked as a pet sitter and had recently constructed a cat house.