Founder, 'numerous' cats killed in fire at home of Happy Cat Sanctuary in Medford, officials say

A Medford man who worked through devastating loss — by turning part of his home into a sanctuary for rescued cats — died in a Monday morning fire at the residence along with dozens of the felines he'd taken in, Suffolk police said.

The body of Christopher Arsenault, 65, was recovered from a back room of the destroyed house on Dourland Road that doubled as a home for the hundreds of cats under the care of his nonprofit Happy Cat Sanctuary.

"This is just terrible," said Roy Gross, head of the Suffolk SPCA, which has worked with Happy Cat in the past. "It’s a horrible situation."

Animal rescue groups brought pet carriers to the scene Monday and offered to help with the remaining cats.

A board member for Happy Cat, Lisa Jaeger, told Newsday that Arsenault died after he went back inside the home to try to save the cats.

"He started going in to get the cats, but didn't come out," Jaeger said. "He was my best friend. He just went back into the house and died trying to save them."

Suffolk fire officials said a 911 call reporting the fire came in at 7:13 a.m., with firefighters from Gordon Heights and 11 mutual aid departments responding to the scene.

Officials said the fire was under control at 8:35 a.m., but most of the home was destroyed. The charred residence remained cordoned off throughout Monday while homicide detectives and arson investigators combed the ashes for clues into how the fire started.

Animal rescuers at the scene feared that about 100 cats may have perished in the fire, either because they were caged, or feral and secured separately in another part of the home.

Several cats injured in the fire had to be euthanized at the Town of Brookhaven Animal Shelter. Other cats were carried away in carriers and treated for smoke inhalation, rescuers said. 

Jaeger, who also is director of Jaeger's Run Animal Rescue, told Newsday that up to 200 cats may have escaped the burning house and remained on the property. Volunteers planned to put up fencing Monday and secure the animals, according to Jaeger.

"For the ones in the house, there was no chance," Jaeger said. "The house was completely taken down."

Of Arsenault, she said: "He gave everything to these animals. He's crying right now, probably wondering why God didn't give him the ability to live his dream and give these cats a safe place to live."

Arsenault founded Happy Cat after his son Eric, 24, was thrown from a motorcycle and killed on the Cross Island Parkway in 2006.

In 2016, Newsday did a story on Christopher Arsenault and Happy Cat — noting he shared his home with more than 300 felines he'd rescued.

In that story, Arsenault said he quit his job as a conductor for New Jersey Transit, as well as his volunteer position with the Port Washington Fire Department, to campaign for better signage and lighting in the area where his son died on the Cross Island.

But it was when Arsenault then discovered a colony of 30 abandoned kittens dumped in Great Neck that he found his calling, Newsday reported.

He left his home in Roslyn, moved to Medford, and founded Happy Cat in 2007.

"It was a tough, tough time," Arsenault told Newsday in 2016. "And it changed my life, because now I'm doing this."

Suffolk County Police Department Chief of Detectives William Doherty said Arson Squad detectives are investigating the cause of the fire.

Police said they are interviewing witnesses and reviewing any surrounding video after neighbors reported hearing an explosion near the time when the fire started.

Brookhaven Chief Fire Marshal Christopher Mehrman told Newsday several surviving, healthy cats were located in separate shelters in the back of the house.

Town officials and the Suffolk County SPCA were on site and trying to find shelters or volunteers who could take in the surviving cats. 

Arsenault was in the process of moving the remaining cats to a 31-acre farm upstate, where about 80 cats were being housed in an Amish barn, Jaeger said. 

The sanctuary was also the subject of multiple district actions by the Town of Brookhaven regarding cats, Mehrman said. He did not elaborate on any code violations in the home. He said he did not know if the home had smoke detectors.

Brookhaven Town attorneys said Arsenault had removed an unsafe finished basement and had hired an expediter for building permits to further modify the home.

"The Town was working with the owner of 12 Dourland Road, Medford to bring his premises into compliance with town and state building codes," the town attorney's office said in a statement. "In the past few months, he was able to relocate 60-80 of his cats to his new cat sanctuary Upstate, where he was looking forward to moving."