Twenty-one cats were killed and five others suffered the effects of smoke inhalation in a fire at a four-storey terraced house in Bangkok’s Don Mueang district Sunday night.
Firefighters took about ten minutes to extinguish the fire, but they were unable to save the animals, which were found dead on the ground floor.
Emergency workers found five other cats, apparently suffering from smoke inhalation but still alive, and administered first-aid treatment to them before taking them to an animal hospital.
The owner of the house, a 56-year-old woman, was not at home when the fire started, but was shocked when she returned to find the damage from the fire and most of her cats dead.
The woman, who lives alone, told the police that she collects stray cats in the neighbourhood and raises them in her house.
She said that she locked the house when she went outside to do some business, which meant that the cats were unable to escape.
Police currently think that an electrical short circuit caused the fire.
