Vet's heroic effort saves cats, dogs
   Susan Wenner
   Tribune Staff Writer
   PORT ST. LUCIE - A Port St. Lucie veterinarian played Superman to three cats trapped in a burning animal hospital room Monday night.
   When Dr. Patrick Kelly saw smoke coming out of Kelly's Animal Hospital on Gatlin Boulevard around 10:30 p.m., he ran in and found a small fire burning in the treatment room. Two cats and a kitten in the room were choking on thick smoke that filled their cages before Kelly pulled them out. He extinguished the fire with a small hose connected to the sink, and he resuscitated the cats with oxygen masks.
   "Everything turned out OK. All three of them are doing very well," Kelly said.
   The veterinarian ignored his own asthma condition when rescuing the animals. He later had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
   Kelly said it was part luck that he discovered the fire before it became more destructive. Apparently, when the fire started, loud smoke alarms in the building set off the burglar alarm, which alerted Kelly at home. He had already received one alarm call that evening.
   "It shows that you can't blow it off," he said.
   There were also about nine dogs and a tortoise inside the hospital, though they were not in the treatment room when the fire broke out.
   Two Port St. Lucie Police officers - initially responding to a routine burglar alarm call - ended up assisting Kelly in evacuating all the animals while firefighters checked out the building and cleaned up. Officers Marty Curran and James Golson were afraid the dogs, excited by all the commotion, might run away. The officers grabbed the other animals and kept them in their patrol car until it was safe to go back into the hospital.
   St. Lucie County Fire District Lt. Steve Anderson said the fire was caused by a short in a small battery charger. The fire caused an estimated $35,000 damage to the hospital, which opened for business as usual Tuesday morning.
 
 

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