Huntington Station family thankful for surviving fire

Reunited with her family and pets after a fire that damaged her home and nearly killed her cat, Betty Ann Jacobsen is thankful.

"I'm so blessed," she said. "We lost our stuff, but it's just stuff. Our friends, family, people that I barely know, have come and helped us."

On Feb. 7, while Huntington Manor firefighters were rescuing the cat, Franklin, 5, with chest compressions and an oxygen mask, Jacobsen, 50, of Huntington Station, was being treated at Huntington Hospital for second-degree burns to her face and first-degree burns to her hand.

The fire started, Jacobsen said, as she was folding laundry in her Sandra Court house's basement, when a can of paint fell into a running drier and exploded in a ball of flame.

"All I know is I was reaching for it and I saw the orange ball," she said.

With Jacobsen's hair on fire, her stepson, Michael Goldberg, 21, rushed to her side and put out the flames. The two of them and her husband, Ward Goldberg, rushed out of the house with the family dog, Lady. But Franklin the cat was quickly overcome by smoke and passed out atop a second-floor staircase.

While publicity about Franklin's rescue drew attention in Newsday and the Internet, Jacobsen said her dog also deserves accolades. "Nobody made any reference to the dog, Lady, who was smart enough to run out with her owners," she joked.

Jacobsen, whose burns render her unable to hold her pets, is staying at a hotel with her husband and their two children. They're looking for a place to rent while their house is repaired from the extensive smoke damage.

Staying at her parents' house are the dog and cat, who she said, remains traumatized.

"He's a bold cat," she said, "and now he's hiding."