Nearly 150 reptiles were rescued from a fire at a Des Moines reptile sanctuary late Friday night.
Not long after Spock’s Sanctuary, 2102 Milton Ave., closed up for the night, a fire started in the “deep quarantine room,” according to a Facebook post from the sanctuary’s owners.
Des Moines firefighters arrived around 10 p.m. and had to cut openings in the building, including the roof, to extinguish the fire, according to spokesperson Capt. Obie Meyers.
Crews left around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, May 2.
The sanctuary was housing 168 animals, including reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, at the time. 146 were evacuated and 144 survived, the sanctuary’s owner said.
The fire was caught before it spread to the rest of the building, according to the Facebook post. Meyers said the cause remains under investigation.
“As soon as they got the fire knocked down, crews started assisting with moving animals out and getting them ready to go over to the ARL,” Meyers said.
“The inspector was able to pinpoint where the fire had started and it happens to be in the same location as a tank that we set up yesterday,” Cam Rieman, an owner of the sanctuary, told the Register.
“We had a very, very sick corn snake surrendered and so we set up an isolation tank,” she said. “That tank was located in the same spot as the fire originated, so we think that the heating element failed.
“The ARL is helping us process all the animals and make sure that we get all the all the soot washed off of them and that everybody is healthy.”
The sanctuary is “taking it one step at a time,” Rieman said.
“We’ve got a village and we’re trying to lean on them as much as we can,” she said, adding some animals have been taken in by volunteers and Snakes Alive.
“We cannot express enough the hurt that is felt between our staff,” the sanctuary’s owners said in the post. “Please forgive us as we manage the aftermath including postponing surrenders, cancelling a few scheduled events, and answering any messages.”
The sanctuary is closed until further notice.
Kyle Werner is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Fire at Spock’s Sanctuary displaces nearly 150 reptiles
Reporting by Kyle Werner, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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