Barn Fire Kills Hundreds Of Exotic Animals In Southwest Ranches
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SOUTHWEST RANCHES (CBSMiami) – A fire ripped through a barn in Broward County, claiming the lives of countless exotic animals.
The owner of the property and her son say they operate Blake's Exotic Animal Ranch.
They collect and breed animals like rare tortoises, turtles and fish.
Now they say it's almost all gone.
Chopper 4 captured the flames and smoke pouring from a barn at a Southwest Ranches home Tuesday afternoon.
Inside the barn, according to Blake Kaldirimoglu, hundreds of exotic animals.
"I was at lunch and all my neighbors called me and said that my barn was on fire and just a before there was a lightning strike," he said.
On Blake's YouTube channel, he has tens of thousands of followers and has spent 8 years collecting animals from Africa, India and other faraway places.
"A lot of people know about what I do here and everything was doing really good, really amazing and now…" he said.
Blake said tortoises in a different part of the property gave birth to many of tortoises that died.
He and his family and friends are devastated at their loss.
"I have projects I've been growing for 10 years and now it's all gone," Blake said. "What am I supposed to do?"
A GoFundMe page has been started to help Blake cover the cost of damages and loss of exotic animals.
Blake and his mother Yamila said he himself was struck by lightning here in Southwest Ranches 4 years ago, so if this is a lightning strike, it's another dose of bad luck.
"I don't know what we're going to do," Yamila said. "We're in such shock that this happened."
The Broward County Fire Marshall is on scene investigating the cause of the fire.
