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Midvale • A Thanksgiving Day fire heavily damaged two condominium units and forced one woman to jump to safety from her second-story home.
The fire at 6883 S. 760 East started at about 10:30 a.m., blackening the gray walls of an eight-unit building. No occupants or firefighters were injured. But crews rescued a gray cat and performed "life-saving measures," intubating the cat with a breathing tube, said Unified Fire Authority spokesman Cliff Burningham.
Cheryl Butler, 58, said she lives with her sister, Debra Rasmussen, in the second-story unit. The two women were readying for Thanksgiving when a smoke alarm went off in the condo. They opened the closed door to Rasmussen's bedroom and saw flames leap out of an electrical outlet, Butler said.
Rasmussen bolted for the front door, and Butler ran onto a balcony to escape the heat. Butler, realizing she was locked out, jumped from the balcony into some bushes below, scraping her heel.
"I didn't even have shoes. That's how fast it happened," said Butler, still wearing her pink-and-black, zebra-striped pajamas. Neighbors, she said, were kind enough to give her some slippers and a blanket. Butler did not know what had become of three other cats that were inside her unit. Two were cats she was watching for her niece.
Burningham said the cats were still unaccounted for Thursday afternoon.
"The good news was that many doors were left open when the fire was burning, so usually cats can make their way out pretty well," he said.
Unified Fire Authority is still investigating the cause of the blaze, Burningham said, estimating the damage at upward of $100,000.
A man and his dog in the third-floor unit also escaped unharmed. The occupants will not be able to return home due to damage, but the American Red Cross or family members will provide housing, Burningham said.
The fire "ruined" plans to cook food for a Thanksgiving dinner at a nephew's house, Butler said.
"Our grandmother's hope chest is in there, a cedar chest full of antiques [that are] irreplaceable," she said as crews continued to scour her home. "All the stuff I have in the world is in my bedroom."