by Frederic Klein
Settled into their new apartment together, Emily Trage and Aidan Samwick were enjoying their life in East Harlem. Freshly finished with college, the young couple had recently adopted two cats, Fish and Chips, from the nearby Manhattan Animal Care Center.
“We went in [the Animal Care Center] one day, we were just going to look, of course,” said Emily. “And then we walked in and these two were staring at us and they were babies. They were only 10 weeks old.”
“They were so little,” added Aidan. “They’d only been in there for like two hours, they had just gotten back from wherever they were fostering them as kittens. It was like fate.”
Fish (right) and Chips (left) before they were adopted from the Manhattan Animal Care Center in East Harlem. (Photo courtesy of Emily Trage)
For Aidan, who works the graveyard shift in the warehouse area of a home improvement chain, it was not unusual to be asleep at odd hours in the late afternoon. On November 19, he was woken from his sleep by the pounding of doors — he smelled smoke, and it was clear he needed to get out quickly.
He raced out, desperately looking for Fish and Chips as he fled for the exit. He couldn’t find them, and he clamored downstairs and out of the building — fear building in his chest.
That night, Emily had been working an overtime shift at a catering company and was planning to go celebrate a friend’s birthday after checking in with Aidan.
“I don’t usually work late hours, but I was working in Midtown and I had just gotten off work,” said Emily. “I called Aidan to let him know what I was going to be doing, and I was like, ‘what are you up to?’ He’s like, ‘well, our building is on fire.’ I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not.”
Emily raced home in a cab and found her street swarmed with fire trucks and other emergency responders. Emily and Aidan found one another and then huddled on the street with their neighbors, worried about whether Fish and Chips were safe and what would happen next.
The couple soon connected with Disaster Action Team volunteers from the Red Cross. As firefighters extinguished the flames, the volunteers got a sweatshirt for a neighbor who had escaped just in his shorts and blankets to help them warm up. Meanwhile, Emily and Aidan waited to see if they could go back and look for Fish and Chips.
Once the fire department gave the all-clear, the Red Cross let Aidan and Emily know they could go look for the cats and he raced off across the street.
Moments later, they emerged from the building holding a pair of small animal carriers — Fish and Chips were safe and sound, reunited with Aidan and Emily. Now with their family whole, they worked with the Red Cross to register for emergency assistance and got a safe place to stay for the next few nights along with their cats. The Red Cross also registered 18 of their neighbors for recovery support.
In the days and weeks that passed, Emily and Aidan sat down with their caseworker from the Red Cross who helped them plan their longer-term recovery. Now, Emily and Aidan have already found a new place to restart their life with Fish and Chips.
“We can’t overstate the sheer value of the human kindness that [Red Cross] showed us when we had nowhere else to turn,” said Emily. “Both [Fish and Chips] are doing well, and we don’t know how we would’ve recovered without them.”
Disasters affect every member of the family, no matter how many paws they have. Put on a red vest and join us. Visit redcross.org/volunteer to find out how you can support your community.
Fish and Chips rest at their new home with Aidan and Emily, recovering together after being displaced from their East Harlem apartment by a fire in November 2025. (Photos courtesy of Emily Trage)
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