ROOSEVELT, N.J. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A New Jersey woman who lived with “many, many cats” died in a house fire she set after her landlord tried to evict her, authorities said.
Officials haven’t yet identified the woman following her death Wednesday morning in the raging fire in Monmouth County, the Asbury Park Press reported.
The woman had refused to leave the home on Cedar Court in Roosevelt after her landlord began eviction proceedings, according to Mayor Peggy Malkin and state police Sgt. Philip Curry.
She threatened to blow up the house, prompting an evacuation of the area and a standoff with a state police SWAT team.
The house burst into flames around 11 a.m. after the woman turned on the gas at the home. The residence was soon engulfed in fire and smoke.
The woman didn’t survive, Curry said. No other injuries were reported.
She’d lived in the area for at least a decade and was a pet sitter, according to the mayor, who said she “had many, many cats.”
Neighbors told WNBC that there may have been as many as 30 cats in the house at the time.
It’s unclear if any of the cats survived the inferno.
While the woman had built a “cat house” on the property, a search by animal control had turned up none of the felines by afternoon, according to reports.
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