LEWISTON — Jessica Foster had been emailing her husband about new places to live, maybe in Massachusetts, when her cat, Chris, jumped up in the window.

“He was just staring like crazy,” said Foster, 27. When she looked outside her 82 Pine St. apartment, “the fire was right there.”

She grabbed her blue crown parrot, Money, from his cage and set him on her shoulder. By then police had come by, telling her to leave and leave the 3-year-old orange cat.

“The cop told me . . . that everything would be fine, we just had to get out,” she said.

When her building caught fire, Foster begged people to go back inside. She was convinced her unit didn’t get the worst of the damage.

“I was just determined he was alive,” she said. “I wasn’t letting it go.”

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More than five hours after the fire started, a firefighter walked out of the burning building with Chris in his arms.

“He wasn’t burnt. He was wet and a little dirty,” she said.

She brought him to the emergency animal hospital for a once-over. A bath and eye drops later, and he was back to her.

“I can replace anything,” said Foster, who has moved in with family while she looks for a new home. “Screw everything else, at least they got him.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

More coverage of the Bartlett Street fire:

Stories from the Blake Street fire:

Helping the victims:


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