Hi guys

I was going to inform you all of our loss but for me it was just to hard as I know many of u personally, it was easier to tell of the tradgedy to complete strangers and aquaintances then it was to people who are friends. I was going to tell you all, but knowing u makes it harder to do. We have recieved so many messages of support from total strangers and I have been strong throughout them all but when I opened the message from Linny I just broke down because she knows us and knows us well so it's more personal I hope u understand.


I have copy and pasted this thread from another forum.

This morning at 8am a fire broke out in our reptile room, we housed over 200 various snakes and lizards in the shed at the bottom of the garden, at 8.05 the fire brigade arrived but before they arrived we could not do anything to help our precious and beloved animals because there was a series of explosions.

I am utterly devistated because only a handful of animals survived, the survivors believe it or not came from what I would call the hot zone area of the fire, these include 2 x adult albino burmese, 2 boa constrictors, 1 x dbl het burmese, 1 x reticulated pythons, 3 x bearded dragons, 1 x blue tongue skink and 1 red tegu.

I can not even put into words the loss we have had today my Sunglow and albino boa who I loved dearly, the albino tiger retic and my adorable 15 yr old iguana were just some of the animals that died today. I'm crying now and trying so very hard not to think about the final moments but it's so difficult.
The fire brigade left at about 6pm this evening and to their absolute credit they refused to go until all the survivors were out, from what we can fathom, the survivors were all kept in herp tek vivaria, at the peak of the fire the floor calapsed and the vivariums fell through the floor to the basement area below, this saved their lives, the vivs melted instead of catching fire and the animals escaped. All of the survivors except for the red tegu are all in a critical state and recieveing vetinary care at Goodards in Thamesmead.

We have lost about £35000 worth of animals and equipment, the price is not the issue I morn the corns as much as I do the boa morphs, but we are in desperate need of any equipment, vivariums, heatmats, anything, so that we can house our surviving animals properly when they are ready to come home.

Thx for listening.

Jai

Quote:

I have copy and pasted this thread from another forum.

As Boa_bird is the origional Author of this thread no copyrite laws have been broken as they are her own words, and i asked her if she would do this to share her sad news with Reptilicious members

So sorry hun, all my condolences and thoughts are with you
RIP all the poor animals

Jai Thanks for sharing your sad story, Some of our members have heard about this in another thread on here started by Nightshade

I have seen the very long list of reps that didnt make it and its awful you have my support and condolances for you lesses as well as im sure a lot of our members on here.

Jai is hoping that you can help in any way you can, feel free to pm her, or me if you prefer and i can pass details on.

I know there is a paypal account set up for donations - but will leave that to Boa_bird to post up the details

RIP MIss Piggy and all the rest of the reps.

Those that did make it are at a very good vets, who im sure is doing everything he can to get them back to health.


Thanks in advance peeps for your support
Linny

I'm sooo very sorry that this happened to you, I feel so awful about this! *Hugs Tight*

sorry for your losses, this could be a lesson to all who keep their reps in the "shed at the bottom of the garden" that maybe its not worth the risk of being so far away from them....

Aw, this is so terrible! I'm so sorry!

Hi all
We did find out the cause and in answer to that I will again copy my reply because I am so very tired and emotionally numb. I will copy all of my posts to this thread.

Jai x

I just read through my post and it didn't end right, if anybody is able to help please pm me, I will write a list of all our loses when I am ready too, tomorrow is going to be the second hardest day of our lives, we have to remove and dispose of all the bodies, we kept blaming ourselves thinking that maybe we over loaded the sockets but at about 4pm the investigation team pinned the fire to an electrical fault underneath the marine tank.

We can at least stop blaming ourselves and accept it for the tragic accident it is.

Thank u for ur support,

Jai

Thank you for all your kind words and support, i'm overwhelmed by all the kindness offered to us by u guys and i'm sitting here in floods of tears I just don't know what to say.

I have spoken to the vet this morning and he has gave me a run down on the health and condition of those in his care.

The female Albino burmese is the worst of all, she has lost both her eyes, and one side of her beautiful face, she has superficial burns to her body and a very inflamed airway, I asked him in his opinion if it was kinder to let her go, his words were that he felt although she was in a lot of discomfort she could lead a normal life even without her eyes, but we are giving her until friday before making any decission on her future.

The two boas had a lot of wheezing and swelling but no burns so after a night of anti biotics they are able to come home this afternoon.
The red tegu fed yesterday and is able to come home.
The het albino/granite burmese is in perfect health and ready to come home.
The bearded dragons and blue tongue skink are also able to come home.
The reticulated python has a burn on his nose but is breathing well and able to come home.
The Male Albino is also ready to come home. I am thankful for whichever higher force spared their lives.

The grizzly work has started this morning, i feel totally helpless because there is a huge clean up operation about to start, I said my goodbyes to all my beloved pets in the early hours, just spent a few moments in the shed, seeing their lifeless bodies I just can't describe, but I had to do it, they are being bagged up as I type this and even though everybody is thinking of me they are keeping me away from all the harsher stuff, for me this doesn't help at all, I need to grieve and I need to see it for it to be real. Unfortunately as the clean up operation is in progress friends and family will be removing everything inside the shed and putting it in a skip, I can not bury all of the animals as there are just far to many but we have kept a few aside that have meant the most and I will give them a good send off later this evening.

I feel I have to write a list of my animals that have gone, for me it will help me to move on and I want to share this with u all.

RIP Little ones.

0.1 Sunglow Boa constrictor
1.0 Albino Boa Constrictor
1.2 Salmon Boas
0.1 Pastel Arab
1.0 Geeline Hypo.
0.2 Guyana Red Tails
1.2 Albino Burmese
7.6 Normal boas
2.1 Royal Pythons
1.0 Albino Tiger retic
2.6 Corn Snakes
1.0 Arabesque Boa
0.1 Green Iguana
0.1 Black and white tegu
1.0 Australian water dragon
2.7 Yemen Chameleons
7.34 Leopard Geckos
1.2 Blue Tongue Skinks
All this years hatchlings, burmese, royals, leopard geckos and chameleons I'll miss u all u were loved and never to be forgotten.

Thank you all again for making this really unbearable time a little more bearable.

Jai x x x

Hi All

The clean up is now over we had so many friends and family help us with the gruesome task, the bodies were collected this afternoon, I just can't describe the emotions, there are no words.

We have also collected a few from the vets, the female Albino Burmese is in a dreadful state and will need a lot more attention but the vet is hopeful she will make a recovery, even with the loss of sight and the facial wounds. She the male burmese and the male retic are still in the fantastic hands of Shelton and Goddards.

We have in our care the het albino/granite burmese, 2 boa constrictors, 3 bearded dragons, the blue tongue skink and the red tegu.

I managed to take a picture of Lucky red, I wanted to share with you all, here she is, considering she was in the hot zone, she is doing very well.

Thank you for your continued support, I will try my hardest to reply to all the supportive messages later this evening.

Lots of love to all who have shown us compassion.

I don't agree with what u say our animals were all loved and cared for.

Jai

im not for one moment saying that they wernt well cared for and loved, just that for me personally in a shed at the bottom of the garden would be too far away, if they were in your home you would be that much closer to you and in this case the fire "could" have been prevented from escalating as far as it did.

personally i could not spend £35k on reps and equipment and sleep at night knowing(or not knowing) what was happening with it being in a shed at the end of the garden....

boa-bird, you have PM