Volunteers will be setting up traps to try to locate any cats that may have found their way out of a recent apartment fire.
Fire destroyed a four-storey apartment complex at 3526 Smith Ave. in Burnaby on Feb. 17. While community groups are working to help the tenants find places to live and replace their belongings, another organization wants to see if any of their cats survived the blaze.
"We are going to be setting some live traps up around the building," said Cheryl Rogers, a volunteer with Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team. "They walk in and it closes behind them."
Volunteers will regularly check the traps to see if any cats have been located.
"We do animal disaster responses," Rogers said. "We respond to fires, flood."
Rogers said she doesn't want to give tenants false hope that their animals are alive, but said it's always possible that some may have fled the fire.
"There's always a chance. I don't ever say never," said Rogers, who did animal disaster response in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. "It's amazing some of the resiliency of the animals."
Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team volunteers set up live traps in the building before it was demolished, but no animals were located. The team encourages area residents to keep an eye out for cats that may have fled the fire and contact the society through its website at www.cdart.org or by calling Rogers at 778-227-0407.
