VINTON, Va. (WFXR) – On New Year’s Eve, at around 8 p.m. Ian Yeager walked into his home in Vinton, which also doubled as the kitten rescue he and his wife founded 3 years ago called Nomadic Paws Kitten Rescue, filled with smoke.
The bathroom was on fire, and the Roanoke County Fire Marshals Officer determined its cause was accidental due to discarded smoking material.
“It’s so hard to see it like this because we spent so much time over the last three years building this rescue, and to see it go like this,” said Ian Yeager, the director of Nomadic Paws Kitten Rescue.
Yeager and his wife moved to Vinton in April. The two lived in this home with the 47 cats they rescued. Most of the cats escaped the fire, some just suffered minor burns, unfortunately, two cats died.
“There was nothing going through my mind other than saving my kittens and cats. And I had to be physically removed from the residence because I wanted to continue going into the smoke,” said Yaeger
Everything inside the home is damaged from the smoke, water, and soot. They were not able to save many of their possessions, but Yeager says those are just things, and he’s grateful for the community’s support.
“To tell you the honest truth, it’s been so prolific with the people here in Vinton and Roanoke and in the surrounding counties that I never imagined there’d be that many people that care,” said Yaeger, “And to see them coming out in droves to help, everything that has happened in the past 24 hours, I really don’t have a lot of words that I can do justice to how it feels.”
The couple has been able to find stable shelter for the rescued kittens in a friend’s home until they are able to move into their next place in a couple of days, and as they look into the future…
“All we can do is continue moving forward and make it bigger and better. And we will save every cat that we can from kittens that were just born up until eight weeks and special needs kittens. That’s what we specialize in. So we’ll continue to do that as long as I have a breath in my body,” said Yaeger.
Nomadic Paws Kitten Rescue will continue to provide updates on its situation on its Facebook page, it has also shared different ways you can help as they look to rebuild.