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Smoke poured out of the front of the white frame house as firefighters struggled to douse the flames.
A firefighter administered oxygen to a cat in a woman's arms; 20 feet away, another feline lay dead in the front yard. Smoke permeated blocks of the Aksarben-area neighborhood.
A fire Thursday in the basement of the house at 6204 Shirley St. badly damaged the home, displaced the people living there and killed at least one of their pets. There were no reported injuries of people.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
The blaze was reported at 8:13 p.m. Firefighters saw heavy smoke as they approached the single-story structure. Realizing that the fire was downstairs, they struggled to find an entrance to the basement.
“It was very difficult to get to,” said Battalion Chief Joe Mancuso of the Omaha Fire Department.
As firefighters battled the blaze, a man and a woman held each other, sobbing, in the middle of Shirley Street. A few feet away, a young man cradled a big black cat. Distraught, they declined to comment.
Smoke drifted east thorough the neighborhood, toward Belle Ryan Elementary School. Along 60th Street, the smoke could be mistaken for fog — except for the acrid odor.
The fire was under control by 8:46 p.m. Mancuso estimated the damage at roughly three-fourths of the home's value, or about $60,000.
World-Herald staff writer Juan Perez Jr. contributed to this report.
Contact the writer:
444-3106, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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