‘Hundreds and hundreds’ of rodents lost after fire at Westman Reptile Gardens near Brandon
Shelvey #Shelvey
The owners of a popular attraction just outside of Brandon, Man., are taking stock of their losses after a fire ripped through several buildings Wednesday evening.
Firefighters from CFB Shilo and Brandon were called to the Westman Reptile Gardens just after 7 p.m. The property houses several species of reptiles, rodents and horses and is designated as one of Manitoba’s Star Attractions.
“Everybody’s still kind of processing what happened,” Erika Shelvey, whose family owns the reptile gardens, said Thursday. “It all happened so fast … it just breaks your heart, watching and not being able to do anything.”
Shelvey said she and her boyfriend rushed to the scene from their home, about five minutes away, after hearing of the fire. By then, neighbours had begun to round up horses as firefighters descended on the scene.
“The fire trucks came as fast as they could,” she said. “We had fire trucks from Shilo, from Brandon, and many of the local Hutterite colonies as well had supplied water trucks.”
Shelvey said a total of nine buildings caught fire on her family’s property. Five were completely destroyed, according to fire officials.
She believes “hundreds and hundreds” of rodents — which would be fed to the reptiles — were lost in the fire. Fire crews managed to save the family’s home, garage and main building that housed the reptiles.
“We probably had over a thousand mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, all kinds of all kinds of rodents,” Shelvey said. “We had only saved 29 cages out of hundreds and hundreds of cages.”
Along with the building that housed the rodents, a building that housed a walk-in freezer full of feed, as well as a barn, were destroyed.
Lori Truscott, a spokesperson for CFB Shilo, said crews were able to bring the fire under control within 20 minutes of arriving. The military base sent nine firefighters and four fire vehicles.
No injuries were reported.
Shelvey said fire investigators believe the blaze started with a spark from an electric fence.
Shlevey credited fast-acting neighbours and complete strangers for stepping in to help her family.
“There [were] probably about 30 or 40 people trying to round up the horses,” she said. “There was another neighbour that was trying to get those out of the way.”
She said the horses are safe at a neighbour’s property for the time being.
Truscott said fire trucks and personnel left the scene at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
Shelvey said her family is still trying to take in what happened and is now dealing with an insurance company to tally the losses. She has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help the family.
“We just wanted to say thank you to everybody that came out to help — the neighbours, the fire trucks, like, everybody that was involved,” she said. “We’re very appreciative of everything.”