At the least 100 animals have been killed in a fireplace on the sister web site of a preferred Essex petting zoo.
Round 1.15am Monday, fireplace crews attended a barn fireplace on the Dengie Peninsula the place the Maldon Promenade Petting Zoo stored various rescue animals.
As fireplace crews labored to extinguish the hearth, employees members, household and pals tried to save lots of as many animals as attainable.
The zoo has since confirmed that just about half of their animals had been misplaced within the fireplace.
In a press release, the Essex County Hearth and Rescue service mentioned that upon arrival, “crews reported {that a} barn measuring 20 metres by 30 metres was 100 per cent alight.
“Crews labored to extinguish the hearth in sections by 12.15pm. Sadly, various animals died on the incident.”
They added: “{An electrical} investigation into the reason for the hearth discovered that it began by chance attributable to {an electrical} fault”.
Craig Williams, one of many farm’s administrators instructed The Instances that 80 per cent of the animals that died had been undesirable or rescued animals.
She mentioned: “Every thing else might be changed. It’s the little lives that we misplaced. It sounds silly however they’re our household. The one consolation is to know that we had an affect on these little lives, even only for a couple of years”.
“We do have insurance coverage however cash doesn’t come near what we’ve misplaced. It feels numb in the intervening time,” she added.
The zoo posted a tribute to the misplaced animals on Fb: “We are going to always remember the attractive animals that we’ve misplaced in such tragic circumstances, among the little guys stored at our personal farm had been retired, resting or earlier undesirable pets that we tried so laborious to look after”.
The zoo listed among the animals who had been misplaced, together with Raz, a “lovely ecalectus parrot, what an incredible cheeky character he was”.
Jake, an enormous tortoise who “at all times stored zookeepers on their toes” was additionally among the many deceased, as had been and 7 meerkats – identified for his or her “enormous personalities” and curious natures.
The zoo added that it takes “each precaution” to stop fires and accidents, together with common well being and security audits, and common exams of home equipment, and frequent fireplace danger assessments.
“With all this mentioned we nonetheless couldn’t forestall {an electrical} freezer fireplace,” the zoo wrote.