Hampton police, fire and Hazmat team responding to a house on Fox Hill Drive found dead woman inside along with as many as 50 cats, police said.
Amanda WilliamsContact ReporterDaily Press
Hampton police, fire and Hazmat officials responded to a home in the 400 block of Fox Hill Road Monday afternoon on a welfare check and found a 91-year-old woman, dead inside, police said.
Crews also found as many as 50 cats inside, police said.
Hampton Fire Department Battalion Chief Craig Topping said the house was uninhabitable because of the amounts of cats, trash and mold inside.
Hampton police, fire and Hazmat officials responded to a home in the 400 block of Fox Hill Road Monday afternoon on a welfare check and found the homeowner, a 91-year-old woman, dead inside, police said.
"There were trash items and cat litter on floor, and feces on that litter instead of in a box," Topping said. "... I wouldn't describe it as a hoarder home — just messy and unkempt," Topping said.
He said the cat-urine smell and odor from the trash is why crews first worked to ventilate the home, he said.
Topping said they will remove the woman's body after the funeral home arrives.
Crews removed live cats first, he said, then took care of cats that had died. Topping said a hole in the floor is where the cats were coming and going from the home. The first crews on scene said when they first got here there were 50 cats, but some ran and some hid, he said.
Animal control now has 15 live cats and one dead. There is at least one more dead cat inside the house, Topping said. He said some climbed trees near the back of the house, and crews can hear them as they come and go.
"There are multiple cats in the ceiling and the walls," Topping said. "They are unable to get them."
He said animal control crews have caught all of the cats that were running around.
Hazmat team was called to a Hampton home Monday. (Hampton Fire Department)
Fox Hill Road was entirety blocked off for more than 4 hours while crews worked.
A tweet from Hampton Fire Department's Twitter account said that the department was called to assist the Hampton Police Division, and Hazmat crews were also summoned because of the house's condition to decontaminate fire crews that were inside.
Another tweet said that fire crews are assisting animal control, and the building will be condemned.Hampton police said this is not a death investigation. Topping said the woman appeared to have died of natural causes.