A 55-year-old woman who loved cats so much that her nickname was “Catmom” died in a Saturday morning fire with her pet felines Cheyenne and Yellow Boy.

April Anderson lived in the garage apartment at 2373 Pauoa Road, a two-story house near Booth District Park. According to her Facebook page, Anderson went to Kalaheo High School, served in the U.S. Army and studied cosmetology at Honolulu Community College.

“I hate to wear makeup and I don’t do high heels,” she wrote in her Facebook intro.

Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Alan Park said the fire was reported at 8:45 a.m., with 10 fire companies carrying 38 personnel responding. The fire was under control at 9 a.m. and extinguished 10 minutes later.

Park said the first HFD company arrived at 8:54 a.m. and “found heavy black smoke coming out of the second-story window.”

Terry Linthicum, who lives in a separate unit at the home, said she heard furniture moving around prior to the fire and thought it was the cats. Then, she smelled smoke.

She said she knew that Anderson, her brother Kerry Linthicum’s longtime live-in girlfriend, was home so she went to their unit and called Anderson’s name but wasn’t able to get through the smoke.

Park said firefighters found the woman unresponsive and initiated medical care. She was transferred to Kuakini Medical Center around 9:10 a.m., he said.

Kerry Linthicum, who was away from the home doing volunteer work when the fire broke out, doesn’t carry a cell phone so he didn’t find out about Anderson’s death until hours later. When he returned home, HFD and Honolulu police provided a quiet space for his sister to inform him of the tragedy.

“I’ve never seen my big brother cry before. He kept asking me, ‘They are all gone?’” Terry Linthicum said.

The American Red Cross, Pacific Islands Region, reported it had dispatched volunteers, including caseworkers and mental health workers, to “provide referrals, guidance or additional assistance as needed.”

HFD has yet to determine the cause of the fire but estimated damage of $22,440 to the structure and $10,000 to the contents.

“The residence did not have working smoke alarms and it did not have fire sprinklers,” HFD Fire Capt. Scot Seguirant said. “The HFD will continue to advocate for fire sprinklers in buildings. It is the most effective way to protect your property and safeguard lives from a fire.”

Terry Linthicum couldn’t speculate on a cause of the fire but said the residence was quite old and had been in the family since 1959.

Kerry Linthicum said one of the reasons Anderson might not have escaped was that she suffered from insomnia and had taken an Ambien sleeping pill in the wee hours of the morning. She also suffered from disabilities related to her military service, he said.

Kerry Linthicum dabbed at his eyes as he recalled how Anderson had struggled in life but lately had been happier. She had just started receiving veterans benefits, and recently welcomed her cat Cheyenne home after the pet had run away, he said.

“Anyway, things were getting better and then this happened,” said Linthicum, who is a retired state adult probation officer. “I’m really going to miss her. I knew her about 30 years.”

Terry Linthicum said she’d miss the woman’s daily presence. “I know that she’s always home.”

Neighbors said they were relieved the fire was extinguished quickly but expressed sadness for the family.

The fire was prevented from spreading by the actions of quick-thinking neighbors and the assistance of nearby construction workers who grabbed hoses and extinguishers and were battling the blaze before firefighters arrived. Many residents said they never saw any flames.

“When I came out there was smoke billowing from the building. There was a lot of black smoke. It was all coming out the door because all the windows were closed, so if anybody was in there they probably breathed all that in,” said James Martinez, who said he provided the construction crew with a fire extinguisher from his home.

Martinez said the fire was “pretty scary” for the neighborhood .

Another neighbor, Mason Aiona, recalled at least three fires in the neighborhood during the 29 years he’s lived there and said “all are troubling.”

Many of the houses in the Punchbowl-area neighborhood are older, wood-framed construction, and the streets are too narrow for a fire truck to easily access, Aiona said.