A group of close friends is grateful to be alive after a fire gutted their home and nearly killed their pets.
Seven people watched their home near Arville and Pennwood go up in flames on Saturday.
"I seen the flames in the back. It was pretty bad," said Robert Rankin who was outside the home with his young nephew when the fire started.
Rankin called his friend Sasha Roberts who also lives in the home to let her know the cats were still inside.
"I was crying. I was freaking out," Roberts said. "To us, they're like family."
Firefighters extinguished the flames but couldn't find one of the cats named Blackie.
Roberts eventually spotted Blackie hiding between blinds and a glass window in the same room where the fire started.
"I really started crying because I was just so happy," she said.
The friends had only been renting the home for a few months. There's now $50,000 worth of damage.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
