UPDATED: Fire Guts Town of Brookfield Garage, Missing Cat Found

Update (12:30 p.m.): The homeowner's cat Bunker has been found alive and well, town officials said. No other details were available.

Early-to-bed, early-to-rise for work, Carol Hecht was asleep after 9 p.m. Wednesday when she heard someone banging on her door and calling out to her.

It was a neighbor, telling her that her attached garage was on fire.

And an impressive fire, it was.

When and rolled up, the garage in the 700 block of Dona Vista Drive was "fully involved and was actually starting to collapse," Town of Brookfield Fire Chief Andy Smerz said. "The header on the garage fell in."

Hecht managed to get out one of her two cats, Fairway ("as in golf," she said). "The other one ran outside," she said.

But despite help from fire crews and neighbors using flashlights, no one was able to find the other cat, Bunker, in the cold dark night. And on Thursday morning, Hecht and her daughter Jodie Moskopf were walking the property, still searching and hoping.

"I'm trying to find her," Hecht said.

"Bunker! Bunker!" Moskopf called.

A town employee found a deceased black cat on Swenson Drive not far away Thursday morning. But employees at Town Hall were relieved to learn it was not Bunker.

Neither Moskopf nor Hecht had a photo immediately available to share, in case others would find the cat. Moskopf said Bunker was a very "skittish" house cat that wasn't fond of being outside.

Police tape surrounded the structure, which the fire chief said suffered an estimated $70,000 loss in structure and contents. An electrical inspector was on site, and insurance adjusters were on the way. The fire is believed to have started in the garage but the cause was unknown, the chief said.

Smerz said it was remarkable the fire didn't spread and severely damage the house. Fire crews from the , Village of Elm Grove and City of Pewaukee assisted the Town of Brookfield and the blaze was under control in about 45 minutes.

The attached garage and a family room immediately adjacent to the garage likely will both need to be rebuilt, the chief said. Water and smoke damage makes the house uninhabitable for now, and Hecht said she was staying with her daughter. But Smerz was glad the fire didn't spread down the length of the attic, burning the house.

"Everybody did a nice job," he said. "It's incredible when you see the amount of fire that was there and with an attached garage, the fact you were able to contain it from the rest of the house."

Hecht's next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said not only did a neighbor awaken Hecht, but another passerby stopped to make sure no one was in the house. The passerby also knocked on the next-door neighbor's house to say there was a fire next door and she might want to evacuate.

"I don't know her name," the neighbor said. "I said I'd call 911 and she said she already had."

Moskopf said she wished she could thank everyone who made sure her mother was awakened and rescued.