Up to 100 cats feared dead after Long Island sanctuary fire kill homeowner
Mar 31, 2025
Investigators on Long Island are looking into the cause of an early morning fire at an apparent cat sanctuary that left one man dead and fears that up to 100 cats were claimed in the blaze as well.
Firefighters were called about the fire on Dourland Road in Medford around 7:15 a.m. A photo share
d to social media showed large flames and thick black smoke rising high above the property.
Within hours, fire crews managed to get the blaze under control. Police confirmed one man was found dead on the main floor of the home; they later identified him as 65-year-old Christopher Arsenalt.
Neighbors and close friends who rushed to the scene said Arsenalt lived on the property and managed Happy Cat Sanctuary.
Witnesses said they heard a loud boom in the early morning come from the property and saw Arsenalt run outside to try and put out flames. They believe he went back into the house to try and save some of the cats.
“[Arsenalt] vowed to take the unwanted, discarded, homeless [cats], the ones that people were going to euthanize, he refused and he took them into his sanctuary, sometimes for no money at all,” Lisa Jaeger said.
“He started the sanctuary 15 years ago. This was his life,” she said. “He gave his life to save these cats.”
According to Jaeger, who helped Arsenalt with the sanctuary and planned to move the cats to an upstate property in a matter of months, a couple hundred of the cats had access to leave the house and were able to make it out. The ones enclosed inside — the exact number still being counted — were not able to escape.
“The cats that are still here, a lot of them are feral,” she said. “It’s where they’re gonna go from here, that’s what our biggest concern is — what we’re gonna do with them once we secure all of them, that’s a couple of days down the road.”
Officials in Suffolk County held a press conference in the early afternoon. They confirmed the death of one man and multiple cats, but could not provide an exact number on how many animals were dead and how many survived.
Dozens of cat carriers stacked in a pile outside of the sanctuary as officials tend to the property and cats still alive or needing medical attention.
This story is developing.
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