The reptile fire

We have a couple who are friends and the husband (Danny) of the pair is a reptile specialist. His professional life has always been around and with animals. He was the curator of the San Antonio Zoo bird sanctuary and also helped run the Snake Farm on IH-35 between New Braunfels and San Antonio.

Now he has his own company "Reptile Adventures" (http://reptileadventures.net/) where he does educational programs on reptiles to schools, Zoo's, Fair's, etc.... He brings snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, alligators, etc... to kids and families and travels all over the United States. Here are some videos of Danny and his animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obUu8MY1QE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL5ghy3MtYU


He has been around some of the coolest animals....ones we only get to see on TV or behind bars and glass. He also has a huge collection of artifacts and skulls....Crocodiles, Rhino, Hippo, Walrus.... Needless to say, a visit to this guys house is ALWAYS an interesting experience.

The reason it is always so cool to visit their house is all these animals are kept on their property...He basically has a reptile preserve here in the Hill Country and it houses about 20 crocodiles/alligators, 30+ snakes of various lengths and styles.... He has two that eat a 30lb hog...EACH!! He has a cobra, a rattlesnake, various vipers and pythons.... He really lives in a zoo!!

They have birds for pets, as well as dogs, horses....They are TRUE animal lovers and conservationists. Here is a video of one of his birds named Jane....She is a carnivour bird and is from the kingfisher family called a Kookaburra....she eats mice! She is HUGE and when you get up close to her, she almost looks like a bird from some ancient myth...She is way cool.... TO VISIT!! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jodxOjopdoo

Donna and I have gone over to their house a few times and been fortunate enough to experience these animals firsthand...here are some pics of our visits...

Dona has actually used some of the pictures she has taken on visits there in her art shows.

These are great people and its always a great time being around them. So interesting and the stories he has to tell are just amazing. He has worked with primates, large cats, elephants....Just a really interesting life he they have and do live. They have such passion and devotion...Its very cool!

I have told him over and over... "If you ever have an opportunity to be near a silver back gorilla, WHILE ITS SEDATED, I would love to be near that animal" and I have no doubts that with Danny, THIS is a possibility!!

On Tuesday night, 1-3-12, Danny went out to check his heaters on his tanks, went inside the house after checking, came back out 30 minutes later and noticed his cage house was on fire. He didn't explain much as we walked around and the damage spoke for itself. TRULY tragic and horrific.... The fire spread quickly and there was nothing he they could do. the fire immediately shut off their phone line and they live out of cell phone range. She had to get into her car, drive to a neighbors and Pound the doors at 9:30 pm to call 911....

It took the Volunteer Fire department 30 minutes to get on the scene....It was HOPELESS!!

He had much of his caged area enforced with steel mesh and concrete....The fire actually got so hot, it burned the wood inside of the concrete....It was simply heart wrenching to walk around and see all of this. We feel so badly for this, and what can one say in a situation like this?
The count, as I recall him telling me, and I am in a haze still from the devastation, but I think it is 16 crocks, 4 turtles, 6 snakes, and 2 large lizards lost in this fire.

Again, TRULY tragic and you just have to know the devotion to the animals these two have.... What can one say??

However, there were some survivors....His large crocs just sunk to the bottom of their tanks and rode it out, the smaller ones weren't so smart...He did save three of his crocs, but two were injured badly....They are burned on their heads and their backs, and when we got their tonight, they had them in their spare bedroom, in horse troughs, in a bleached water solution to try and save them. They are in bad shape and they don't think one of them is going to make it.

We went in to see the survivors and help him get them into their medicated troughs.

Danny and Debbie had emptied out their spare bedroom, brought in horse troughs and gave the room to the crocs and trying to save them. I was able to help get the large one in the middle into one of the tanks....These are some AMAZING Lizards man!!

Danny said it was good to see them "being crocks" and I got some of it on video... He said the spunk of them was a good sign they might make it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bCf6MvUd18

Please send some positive thoughts their way because I am sure they are going to be puling a few "all-nighters" to try and save these amazing animals... We are going by tomorrow to try and help with some cleanup and helping them with the tanks.

Luckily, Danny and Debbie house their animals in different places so they did have many of their animals survive, but this was more than a 50% loss of their animals in one incident.... Again, just tragic!

Danny, throughout his time with animals, has accumulated a VERY large skull collection. He uses them for educational purposes as well as a collectible. He also has numerous fossils of various reptiles and reptilian type birds he uses for educational purposes as well. In the pictures above, you will see pics of reptile books (over 200 books)....These were in the building that caught fire... Here are some of his skulls that were destroyed...

Hippo skull:

Upper and lower Hippo skull Tusks are destroyed

Various animals and educational tools

Rhino Skull

They also had other skulls...A walrus skull with 36" (destroyed and crumble in your hands) tusks , turtles, and some artifacts and fossils that are a TOTAL loss and I couldn't get pictures.

We really are in shock with Danny and Debbie. as in any pictures, these do NOT do justice to the devastation. We left after about an hour as they were warming water and getting another tank ready for another croc.

I know Debbie is devastated, and Danny is keeping himself so busy, I don't think its actually hit him yet. I hope we can go over and help them deal with removal of some of the animals that didn't make it out....I just can't imagine them having to do this.... I know there isn't much we can say or do, but I sure feel like I NEED to say or do something....

I am sure if this becomes a burden for them financially, I will be putting together a fundraiser. I don't know how insurance covers exotic animals....I sure hope they can rebuild and build their dream back again... I just cant imagine such a large, devoted part of my life being so disrupted and turned on its back.... We are suffering with our friends... I hope that through this something GREAT will come....Because these guys deserve it!!

Through every adversity comes something great.... This HAS to be the same!