Report: ‘Mouse Infestation’ at Animal Shelter; No Fire Alarms, Smoke Detectors or Security Cameras at Facility

There are no fire alarms or smoke detectors in the New Canaan Animal Shelter, which has a mice infestation, documents show.

There also are no security cameras at the Animal Shelter, which was shuttered last month following a fire whose cause hasn’t been determined, according to a fire investigator’s report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. 

Located in a former incinerator building at the Lakeview Avenue Transfer Station, a complex informally known as “the dump,” the Animal Shelter has been offline since a fire that was discovered at about 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 20. There were no animals in the building at the time and no one was injured.

The shelter itself has had several ongoing problems, according to information contained in an incident report filed by Assistant Chief Russ Kimes, who was tapped by the Fire Department to conduct an investigation. 

Used primarily to house dumped, lost or abused dogs and cats, the shelter “does not have a monitored fire alarm system, and also does not have any local smoke detectors,” Kimes said in the report.

Discovered around midday on a Friday, the fire inside the building could have happened any time since the Tuesday of the same week, the last time that Animal Control Officer Sean Godejohn was in there, the report said.

In a witness statement, Godejohn said he “immediately noticed a bad smell” on entering the building but didn’t see anything unusual.

“I sat down to eat lunch and then noticed that the cobwebs on the ceiling were black, and that is when I went into the room and saw the burned dryer and soot on the ceiling,” Godejohn said in his witness statement.

He added that he had “cleaned some of the cages that day [Tuesday]” and “washed and dried some towels” which he then placed folded and dried on top of a dryer unit, the report said. Godejohn had also “cleaned the cage” directly across from the dryer using Accel Concentrate, and “”had also likely also sprayed some Windex with Vinegar in the cage to clean it, using the same towel to clean the area,” the report said.

The rag was then hung on an open cage door to dry, adjacent to the dryer and “there was nothing else on top of the dryer besides the litter box, the cleaned rags and two cleaned out food bowls,” Godejohn said in the witness statement.

On scene, Kimes found “the burned remnants of the towels” and litter box on top of the dryer, as well as “scattered cat food containers that “had been donated” in a bag.

“During the fire the bag melted and the cans fell over onto the dryer itself,” Kimes wrote in the report. “Some of these cans had heated to the point of rupturing, causing them to explode and be found scattered on the ground in the room. Their contents were largely empty, which [Godejohn] attributed to be most likely due to a ‘continuing mouse infestation’ probably post the fire having been opened and exposed.”

The “area of greatest burning damage” was on top of the dryer and “extending to the center of the dryer control panel,” the report said.

“There was no burn pattern on the wall, only a light soot across the entire ceiling,” it said. “Radiative heat damage could be seen on the insulation on the adjacent hot water heater insulation foam. A possible chemical reaction between the cleaning products on the rag (hydrogen peroxide and vinegar) cannot be eliminated as a potential cause of the fire, however the cause and origin of the fire are undetermined. During my investigation I also accessed the town video camera footage, however there are no cameras that cover the animal control shelter building.”

Described as “decrepit” by former Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm, the condition of the shelter has been the subject of discussion among New Canaan’s highest-ranking officials in the past. Flagged by then-Selectman Nick Williams in 2019 as “dark and dank” and “a dump within a dump,” the condition of the shelter that New Canaan Police use to house pets re-emerged in 2020 when authorities seized 12 neglected dogs, including 10 puppies, from a Butler Lane home. That led to discussions about five years ago among town officials about a rebuilt or relocated animal shelter, but such a project never materialized.

Wilton Animal Control has been tapped to house lost and discarded pets until the shelter is back up, officials say.