Waldorf family has a tragic Christmas

Home destroyed, five cats perish in blaze

Friday, Jan. 1, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES Catherine Bader, left, is comforted by her friend, Anita Hawkins, as they stand in front of Bader's house in Waldorf, which was destroyed by a fire. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Standing outside her burned-out home, still festooned with icicle lights, Catherine Bader cries as she scans the belongings piled in her front yard, many of them charred from the Christmas Eve fire.

A teddy bear, a few pieces of furniture and a couple of melted pet crates were among the only items left from the Waldorf home that had been bustling with holiday preparations as a faulty downstairs furnace was sparking the blaze.

"I will never celebrate Christmas again," said Bader. "It's a tragic day."

Bader said she was downstairs doing laundry the afternoon of Dec. 24, and her mother was upstairs wrapping gifts. Other family members were planning on visiting the home for a Christmas Day celebration, and Bader was getting ready for the gathering.

Bader didn't smell any smoke or hear anything abnormal. But when she left the laundry room, she saw flames engulfing a doorway.

Running upstairs to her kitchen, Bader filled pots and pans with water to fight the fire as she yelled for her mother and son to leave the home.

"She screamed, ‘Mom there's a fire! Get out!'" said Shirley Bader, Catherine's mother.

Within seconds, the entire home had erupted in flames, said Catherine Bader, who went outside and grabbed a neighbor's hose to try and save her cats. She tried to knock out windows and run back inside to save the pets, which were trapped in the residence, but it was too late; the fire had already overwhelmed her home.

After she escaped the fire, Bader's mother knelt at the front door and tried to call for the cats, looking for them through the thick smoke.

"I saw a big, fluffy thing, and I just grabbed it," said Shirley Bader, who seized one of the cats, Boots, saving him from the fire.

However, Catherine Bader said five pets died in the fire, including two foster cats, Leighann and Noel, who were trapped in crates. Her cats, Binx, Buster and Tipsy, also died, she said.

"Nothing will replace the babies I lost," she said.

Forty members of the Waldorf, La Plata, Hughesville, Brandywine and Accokeek volunteer fire departments fought the blaze, but the Norwood Court home was destroyed and has been condemned.

Some Christmas gifts survived the disaster, saved from the home by firefighters, and the next day, Bader and her family were able to open the presents after wiping soot from the packages.

The three people in the home escaped from the fire, but Bader and her mother were treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation.

During and after the fire, the kindness of the community helped Bader deal with the tragic incident. From the firefighters who battled the blaze to Charles County sheriff's officer Patrick Hood, who prevented her from rushing into the burning house, she said authorities on the scene were supportive and helpful.

And from her friends, there was also an outpouring of help, she said. Bader's friends and neighbors, Anita and Greg Hawkins, on their way to a holiday dinner when they heard about the fire, rushed to the scene. Friends Andy and Cindy Hosier opened their home to Bader, she said.

Dr. Jeffery Miller and the staff of the Charles County Veterinary Hospital treated Boots free of charge, and others donated clothes and money to help Bader piece her life back together.

"I don't know what I would've done without these people," she said.

brodgers@somdnews.com