{"id":289253,"date":"2026-05-29T19:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289253\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T19:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:27:23","slug":"firefighter-rescues-bobcat-kitten-from-ashes-of-charlotte-county-brush-fire-charlotte-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289253\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighter rescues bobcat kitten from ashes of Charlotte County brush fire | Charlotte County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (WINK)\u2014\u00a0A tiny bobcat kitten is getting a second chance after firefighters pulled her from the ashes of a brush fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Bayshore Volunteer Firefighter Julian Roman-Kulwicki was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/charlotte\/multiple-brush-fires-reported-after-storms-move-through-charlotte-county\/article_662b0fdc-eff8-4d79-aa2a-7fdf25476b01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">working a brush fire<\/a> on Orange Blossom Blvd. in Charlotte County on May 24 when he spotted a bobcat kitten meowing and crawling out of a pile of ashes.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"cat in recovery.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;I went over, grabbed it and wrapped it in my jacket,&#8221; Roman-Kulwicki said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">The fire is believed to have been sparked by lightning and burned across 4 acres, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bayshorefire.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bayshore Fire Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/crowclinic.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife<\/a>, known as CROW, is now caring for the kitten, estimated to be four to six weeks old.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"cat in recovery 2.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Veterinarians at CROW did not find any burns, injuries or current issues with the kitten&#8217;s lungs, but she is being closely monitored.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;Right now, she is stable and resting comfortably in our care, which is encouraging,&#8221; said Dr. Jessica Comolli, CROW&#8217;s Research and Medical Director.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;One of our biggest concerns at this stage is the possibility of smoke inhalation. Even when animals appear stable initially, respiratory complications can develop over time, so we are monitoring her very closely.\u00a0We&#8217;re very grateful to the Bayshore Fire team for bringing in this bobcat kitten to CROW,&#8221; Dr. Comolli added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Roman-Kulwicki, who has been a volunteer at the Bayshore Fire Department for about a month, said he is trained to &#8220;protect life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;She was cold to the touch, so I tried to warm her up,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;I started to do research and found out it was a baby bobcat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Bayshore Fire Captain William LeMieux was at the station when the kitten arrived wrapped in firefighting gear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">&#8220;I washed her off. She was exhausted,&#8221; LeMieux said. &#8220;I&#8217;m relieved the bobcat kitten is with CROW. I know she is in good hands there and hopefully will get back to the wild,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Roman-Kulwicki has affectionately named the bobcat kitten Ash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 overflow-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words text-sm\">Southwest Florida residents with questions about orphaned or injured wildlife can <a href=\"https:\/\/crowclinic.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">call CROW&#8217;s first responder team<\/a> at 239-472-3644, ext. 222.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (WINK)\u2014\u00a0A tiny bobcat kitten is getting a second chance after firefighters pulled her from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[122346,50333,209,211,210,853,122347,41851,1521,10166],"class_list":["post-289253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-bayshore-fire-department","tag-bobcat","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-county","tag-clinic-for-the-rehabilitation-of-wildlife","tag-crow","tag-southwest-florida","tag-wildlife-conservation-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}