Picture of firefighter with cage full of cats found in the road after California fire roared through

The pictures are stark and harrowing. They show California Fire Captain Steve Millosovich carrying a cage full of cats that were found “in the road” after the Camp Fire had moved through the area on November 9th in Big Bend California. I presume it is called “Camp Fire” because the fire started in the forests where people camp.

Cats in cage left in road as California fire roared through
Firefighter carries cage full of cats left in road as Camp Fire roared through the area. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Cats in cage left in road as California fire roared through
Firefighter carries cage full of cats left in road as Camp Fire roared through the area. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The photos are by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. The color balance is ‘as is’. They are dark and yellow. It must be the air quality: full of carbon particles and the sun barely getting through.

We have to speculate as to what happened. Perhaps the owners prepared the cats for transportation out of the area as the fire raged around them and then panicked and left without them. Who knows?

Associated post:

ABC7 News reporter and her photographer kept burned cat comfortable in their van until help could be found


I have an update from Chai – see comment. The cage fell off the back of a truck. Well there you are. This reason did not occur to me as I imagined cars fleeing the devastation. Thanks Chai.


I’d like to think I would not do this. I’d like to think I’d make absolutely sure that I had my cat or cats with me before driving away through flames on either side of the road. However, it would have been scary. There would be uncertainty about getting through and clear of the fire. We don’t know how we’d react so we can’t be too critical of cat owners who leave their cats behind but…there’s been quite a lot of pets being abandoned in the recent spate of emergencies in the USA when we include the hurricanes on the East Coast to the fires on the West.

CNN report: The large Camp Fire in Northern California, which obliterated 80% to 90% of the homes in one town, has left at least nine people dead. It must have been hellish.

Source: heavy.com.

7 thoughts on “Picture of firefighter with cage full of cats found in the road after California fire roared through”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. So happy the cats were found and saved the horror of finding your cats had fallen off your truck in the escape would be the saddest thing ever

    Reply
  3. I found more stories on this. The firefighter Steve Millosovich stated the cage had fallen from the truck bed as the driver was evacuating. You linked another rescue attempt by this man back on January 6, 2017, of a cat stuck high in a tree for days that was sadly unsuccessful. It is heartbreaking to read that 23 persons have been found dead from the Camp Fire, and one has to believe countless animals are dead as well. But it is heartwarming to read how, when faced with evacuation, so many people took what was important, their papers, photos, medication, and yes, their pets.
    Another photo of the cat rescue, and perhaps in the background, the very truck the cage fell from, found on timesunion.com and dailyitem.com front pages today.

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