OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
BURNING ISSUE
Rescuing animals from a fi re in the middle of the night was the horrifi c situation Dardenelle Long, director of Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park, Tennessee, found herself dealing with in 2006. Kathleen Whyman hears what happened and how other zoo operators can avoid suffering the same ordeal
What happened?
One night in November 2006, at around 11.30pm, a citizen was driving past the zoo and saw smoke in the park, so raised the alarm. The fi re was caused by a faulty heat lamp in the zoo’s Education Center, which is a standalone building at the front of the zoo. It didn’t burn down completely but there was extensive damage. Luckily the fi re didn’t spread to any other buildings or animal enclosures.
How did you feel when you heard the news?
From the initial call, I wasn’t sure which building was involved, so I was uncertain as to what animals might be in danger. I was horrifi ed when I arrived and saw the state of the damage. I had no idea that it had caught so quickly – the entire roof was engulfed and it took the fi refi ghters several hours to put the fi re out.
How were the animals evacuated?
It took fi re fi ghters several hours to put out the fi re, which had been caused by a faulty heat lamp
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The fi re department got there within 10 minutes of the call. I arrived with some other staff members shortly afterwards. The animals were carried away or rolled in cages. Most were small enough to be han- dled with no problems. Luckily there were no dangerous animals housed in that area
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so we didn’t need to worry about tranquil- lising them before moving them to safety. Most of the animals were put into an older building in the zoo. A couple of buildings were without electricity because the fi re- fi ghters had to shut off the power to the Education Center.
What happened to the animals after they were evacuated?
Some were transported to an emergency centre. The rest we moved to the reptile house and another area that had previ- ously housed animals. After the fi re, we were furnished with large offi ce trailers and delayed renovating one of our buildings so we could house the animals there. It was several months before we could return them all to their enclosures.
Were many animals injured or killed in the fi re?
Only a few animals, including a tortoise called Eddie, were exposed to the actual fi re. All the injuries incurred were smoke inhalation related. Most animals recovered within a week, but sadly 13 died. Another tortoise was transported to the Knoxville Zoo Veterinary college for treatment. She had really bad respiratory problems and took a month to recover.
AM 2 2010 ©cybertrek 2010
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