Eighteen cats and two birds were killed during a Connecticut house fire, but firefighters were able to save eight other pets. 

The blaze broke out just after 1:30 a.m. in the town of Berlin, and the female homeowner, Katherine O'Leary, was able to escape without being injured.

Matt Odishoo, the deputy fire marshal of Berlin, said the fire department brought most of the surviving animals out and revived them, before turning them over to animal control.

The surviving animals include seven cats and one sheep dog named Quigley. They are in the custody of Berlin Animal Control.

"They look healthy. They're traumatized, obviously, but they look healthy. They're good weights," Jan Lund, the animal control officer for Berlin, said.

For more, visit NBCConnecticut.com

One cat is missing.

O'Leary is expected to check on her animals on Thursday.

Animal control plans to go over the pet records and make sure the pets are neutered in good health before returning them to O'Leary.

No local ordinance in Berlin limits the number of pets a resident can have, Lund said, and neighbors have not issued any complaints with animal control.

Officials believe that the fire appears to have started in mudroom. It caused extensive fire and water damage, fire officials said.

The cause is under investigation.

Eric Talmadge / AP

A brown tree snake is held by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist Tony Salas outside his office on Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on the island.

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on Guam's jungle canopy. They are scientists' prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake.

Most of Guam's native bird species are extinct because of the snake, which reached the island's thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II.

There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines.

More than 3,000 miles away, environmental officials in Hawaii have long feared a similar invasion — which in their case likely would be a "snakes on a plane" scenario.

That would cost the state many vulnerable species and billions of dollars, but the risk will fall if Guam's airdrop strategy succeeds.

"We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam."

Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet long but can grow to be more than 10 feet in length.

Defenseless birds
Most of Guam's native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out.

The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies.

They use venom on their prey, but it is not lethal to humans.

The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished Guam's image as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat.

The solution to this headache, fittingly enough, is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers including Tylenol.

The strategy takes advantage of the snake's two big weaknesses. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans.

The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one.

U.S. government scientists have been perfecting the mice-drop strategy for more than a decade with support from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior.

Streamers
To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed.

Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk.

"One concern was that crows may eat mice with the toxicant," said William Pitt, of the U.S. National Wildlife Research Center's Hawaii Field Station. "However, there are no longer wild crows on Guam."

The mouse drop is set to start in April or May.

A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on Guam.

Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. The cost of treating snake bites would account for a small share.

Native Hawaiian birds "literally don't know what to do when they see a snake coming," said Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a partnership of Hawaii government agencies and private organizations.

"Once we get snakes here, we're never going to be able to fix the situation," Martin said. 

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Residents in a Cumberland County, N.J., community were left wondering what caused dozens of birds to drop dead from the sky earlier this week.

Residents along Peach Drive in Millville found at least 80 dead birds -- mostly red-winged blackbirds -- on the ground, having fallen from trees and the sky.

"Crazy -- something out of a movie," said resident Michelle Cavalieri, who saw the birds fall.

The birds caused a bloody mess on roadways in the residential neighborhood.

For more, visit NBC10.com

"They’d get up and try and fly and they were out of control so they’d crash and fall again," said resident Jim Sinclair. "It was just strange."

Animal control, public health officials and other emergency crews were on the scene Tuesday morning collecting dead birds to try and figure out exactly what caused so many of them to die.

Cumberland County Public Information Officer Troy Ferus said the birds' death likely was caused by something they ate -- a granular pesticide put down legally by nearby Ingraldi Farms.

One of dozens of birds that was found dead on the ground in Millville, N.J.

"Preliminary investigation gives us the impression that.. he had problems with birds," said Ferus. "He applied for and got a permit for a product that kills birds and that’s what it seems to have been effective at doing."

Here is the county's press release on the incident: 

The Department of Health reports that Monday evening Ingraldi Farms applied a granular pesticide intended and approved to cull birds, causing an unusually high volume of dead birds in the area of Ingraldi Farms and Whitemarsh Estates in Millville.

The material used; Avitrol Double Strength Corn Chops (EPA reg. # 11649-5) is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and intended to be used for bird control for Blackbirds, Brewer's Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbird, Starlings and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds.

In the past, Ingraldi Farms has also used Avian Control (EPA reg. # 33162-1) a ready to use liquid repellent intended to be used for bird control for Geese, Gull, Pigeon, Crows, Starlings, House Sparrows, Blackbirds, Grackles and House Finches.

Ingraldi Farms is licensed through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to apply pesticides on their farms and has been working with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife to alleviate the crop damage done by large flocks of birds. Remedies include auditory shock, hunting and pesticides. Ingraldi Farms has estimated a crop loss of $15,000 so far, due to the birds eating their crops.

Bird specimens have been collected and are being sent to the NJ-Department of Environmental Protection Laboratory for testing.

No one at Ingraldi Farms would talk to NBC10's Ted Greenberg when he went there for comment.

Officials say the dead birds are not toxic, but that any member of the public that encounters a dead bird should use gloves when picking it up and wash their hands thoroughly after handling and disposing of it in the trash.

But they put out a call to residents Tuesday afternoon that urged residents to remain inside "due to an odor and the death of several birds in the area."

Recently, bird kills have happened in various locations around the world -- possibly none more famous than the New Year’s Eve death of hundreds of blackbirds in Arkansas.

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Lynn Chamberlain / AP

A Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee frees some surviving grebes on Dec. 13 at Stratton Pond in Hurricane, Utah, after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night.

Thousands of birds died on impact after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot and other areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground in what one wildlife expert called the worst downing she's ever seen.

Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the survivors after the creatures crash-landed in the St. George area Monday night.

By Tuesday evening, volunteers had rescued more than 2,000 birds, releasing them into nearby bodies of water.

"They're just everywhere," Teresa Griffin, wildlife program manager for the Utah Department of Wildlife Resource's southern region, told The Spectrum newspaper in St. George. "It's been nonstop. All our employees are driving around picking them up, and we've got so many people coming to our office and dropping them off."

Officials say stormy conditions probably confused the flock of grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird likely making its way to Mexico for the winter. The birds tried to land in a Cedar City Wal-Mart parking lot and elsewhere.

"The storm clouds over the top of the city lights made it look like a nice, flat body of water. All the conditions were right," Griffin said. "So the birds landed to rest, but ended up slamming into the pavement."

No human injuries or property damage have been reported.

Griffin noted most of the downings she's seen have been localized, "but this was very widespread."

"I've been here 15 years and this was the worst downing I've seen," she told the newspaper.

Officials said they were continuing a rescue effort that started Tuesday afternoon and included an enthusiastic group of volunteers. The surviving grebes were released into bodies of water in southern Utah's Washington County, including a pond near Hurricane.

"If we can put them on a body of water that's not frozen over, they'll have a better chance of survival," said Lynn Chamberlain, a wildlife department spokesman.

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A woman could face charges after sheriff's deputies found 445 birds in her home in Santa Barbara, Calif., local media reported Monday.

Santa Barbara County Animal Services is expected to present its evidence against Sanday Coupla to a district attorney later this week, KEYT.com reported.

An anonymous tip led sheriff's deputies to Coupla's home, where they found 445 birds -- including chickens, parrots, turkeys and quail. Farm animals, cats and dogs were also on the premises.

The county animal shelter, which is set up to handle 2-3 birds, was asking for donations of bird food, KSBY.com reported.

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Nevada Department of Wildlife

Hundreds of dead birds that were found inside Nevada mining claim markers are displayed.

Armed with a legal provision that took effect this month, a bird conservation group is urging state residents to pull out thousands of old mining claim markers made out of PVC to prevent more birds from entering what look like nests, but which instead are thin, slippery death traps.

"It is certainly possible and perhaps even likely that a million or more birds have needlessly died in these pipes," George Fenwick, president of American Bird Conservancy, said in a statement issued Tuesday. That number is based on Nevada having more than one million mining claims on federal land.

The legal provision enables "anyone to pull up claim marker stakes that are improperly set and act as bird-killing traps," the group stated. Having taken effect on Nov. 1, the provision is part of a 2009 law that invalidated any claim with an open-ended marker.

Nevada Department of Wildlife

Mining claim markers like these are death traps for birds.

"Small birds often see the opening of the pipe markers as a hollow suitable for nesting," it added. "After perching on the pipes, the birds then enter the hole only to become trapped because the walls of the pipes do not allow them to extend their wings and fly out and are too smooth to allow them to grapple their way up the sides. Death from dehydration or starvation in the hot, dry Nevada desert climate then soon follows. Other animals such as lizards also meet the same fate."

The most frequent victims are ash-throated flycatchers and mountain bluebirds, the group said, while other species include woodpeckers, sparrows, shrikes, kestrels, and owls.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife and the federal Bureau of Land Management earlier this month spent four days removing old markers and plan more removals soon.

Nevada Department of Wildlife

The cap had come off this marker post.

A troubling find was that "about half of those markers that had protective caps put in place at some earlier point in time, now had those caps displaced, on the ground nearby," said state biologist Christy Klinger. "So the hazard from the pipe became re-established."

Fenwick also worries that the state law "provides no meaningful enforcement provisions."

"It is encouraging that we are seeing efforts by local, federal, and state agencies to address the problem," Fenwick said. "However, given the enormous scale of the issue, long-term solutions are required. While Nevada has a large mining industry, the issue goes well beyond their borders to a number of other mining states. Mining claim holders need to be held accountable for their stakes through federal regulatory action: remove your hazardous markers or face fines under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act."

The Nevada Mining Association, for its part, said it supports the law.

"The Nevada Mining Association was pleased to support legislation in the early 90s to outlaw the use of hollow claim markers, and since that time, our members have taken the appropriate steps to replace hollow markers with monuments that cause no threat to birds or other wildlife," association President Tim Crowley told msnbc.com. 

"We understand that despite the original law change there were still large numbers of hollow markers throughout the state," he added. "Therefore, the NVMA was once again pleased to support legislation in 2009 allowing for any remaining hollow markers to be pulled from the ground and laid next to their original location."