Sina the cat comes to the rescue in Berlin fire

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Sina the Siamese cat was celebrated as a heroine on Friday after she woke her owner in time for her and her son to flee flames and smoke that engulfed their Berlin apartment, Bild newspaper reported.

The 48-year-old housewife, named by Bild as Medina R., forgot to extinguish a candle before going to bed and at around 3.10 a.m. local time on Thursday morning felt Sina running over her face.

"Then there was a loud crash and I woke up," she told the paper. "Sina had knocked over a lamp."

The bedroom was already filled with thick smoke and flames were blazing in the living room, Bild said.

"I ran to my son's room, shook him awake and called the fire brigade," Medina R. told the paper. "I am only alive because of my cat. I am so grateful to her."

A police spokesman was unable to confirm Sina's heroic role in the escape but confirmed that a cat had also been saved from the apartment. "It's not actually that unusual for pets to notice smoke first and alert their owners," he said.

The woman and her son, 17, were treated in hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation, police said in a statement. Bild printed photos of Sina being given oxygen and she was afterwards treated at a veterinary clinic, the paper said.

(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Paul Casciato)