Lombard shelter volunteer shares details after dozens of cats rescued from fire

I was able to grab a volunteer to chat with us. This is Tracy. Tracy, we actually visited with you right away this morning. You came rushing in. Can we talk about what you saw last night, or this morning, about hearing about the fire last night? I woke up to a text message that there had been a fire here, and I honestly, I didn't believe it. So I rushed over here straight out of bed, and that's when you saw me this morning. I was very shaken up, crying at that time. But a good update is all of our cats have been rescued. There were two that were loose in the building hiding. We have since gotten them out and rescued. And right now we're just in the process of going in and getting, you know, as much supplies out that we can, files, just things like that. The cats are at a local veterinarian office. Some of them have been treated for smoke inhalation. Some had minor injuries due to the rescue. But they thankfully have all been accounted for, and we pray that they all recover. Oh my gosh, thank goodness, and you know that you guys have a lot of love from the community because a lot of people have been stopping by as dangerous as it is on St. Charles Road and taking photos and posting on Facebook and such. Thank you so much. What's maybe your call to action from the community? Is it to donate? Do you guys need volunteers to take cats in? That I do not know. We are meeting here to have a volunteer meeting to figure out what our next step is. Definitely, though, we were in the process of raising funds to move further down the road into an old veterinarian office. That's not going to happen until spring, though, but we are still in the process of raising funds for that move and remodeling it into a shelter. So we would love any help. Yeah, I bet, especially now, looking up, I mean, knowing how many volunteers come and share this space and care for the cats, how are you feeling? Maybe hopefully a little more hopeful compared to early this morning. I'm just very grateful. All the cats are healthy and accounted for. We have probably 50 volunteers. We come in different shifts every day. There's a morning and afternoon and evening. And I mean, everybody is just they're the nicest people ever. I mean, the cats are the sweetest little love bugs ever. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And I mean, we all love what we do. That's why we come here. So I think everything will work out. I mean, I have a positive feel about this. It's sad that it happened, but I mean, we're a great group of people with a great group of cats. I think it'll all work out. I agree. All right, Cat Guardians, guys, they have a Facebook, Instagram page where I bet you guys will be posting updates once they become available. But good news, at least, that they're able to get the two kitties that were still considered missing out of the building, and they're safe and sound. It looks like they're going to go get vet help. The fire was all clear by 10 p.m. on Sunday night, last night. Um, so we'll be waiting for updates on what caused this fire. It seems like a lot of the damage was mostly to the first floor and that second floor as well. I'll send it back to you guys. We can feel the love from here. Gabby, thank you so much for bringing us that interview.