Flame the arson cat is ’employed’ by the Belmont Fire House in Greenville, South Carolina. Somehow, the famous cat with over 100,000 Instagram followers, became trapped in a 12-inch concrete storm drain pipe that runs 50 feet beneath the parking lot at the fire station after heavy rain flooded the Upstate.
The orange and white beauty was rescued as a starving kitten three years ago. The firefighters began feeding him and Flame decided to call the fire station his forever home. In a way, he’s an emotional support cat since he provides companionship and comfort to take the edge off after a rough fire call.
The heavy rains over the past few days may be what swept Flame into the drain. According to Lt. Brandon Peskopos when interviewed by Greenville Online,
“Our assistant chief was parking his truck and was calling for him because he wouldn’t come to the door. He went around to the back of the truck and heard a sound coming from the drain.”
No one is sure how Flame became trapped. He hadn’t been trapped for more than a day before his rescue around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night. The firefighters went in after pulling the drain covers and rescued a soaking wet cat. Flame has spent the day running around and wasn’t injured.
After his fellow crew began posting photos of Flame on Instagram, he gained thousands of followers and went on to be featured in Animal Planet’s show “My Cat from Heaven.”
Flame is used to being famous. He was awarded 2017 Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York.
The crew plans to put a cover on the drain to prevent any curious animals from becoming trapped, especially orange and white cats who like to wander. As for how Flame ended up losing one of his nine lives, he’s not telling anyone how he ended up trapped.
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A fire station with a cat is much better than a fire station without a cat. They go together so well. Flame has made these guys famous and added a soul to the building.
I don’t see why all fire stations shouldn’t have a resident cat 🙂 It makes sense. It works. And these guys spend most of the day kicking around the station. They need some entertainment.
I guess the problem is that not all firefighters like cats or even accept them. They’ll normally prefer dogs.
So every fire crew should have at least one female who likes cats and who looks after the cat. There problem solved.