Simone - News

Fire destroys snake collection in Brazil


On the last May 15th, a fire destroyed one of the largest world’s snake collection in the laboratory of reptiles of Butantã Institute, São Paulo.
The fire started around 7:30am and it was controlled only one hour after. The building where the reptiles were kept didn’t have anti-fire system or fire hydrant. Then, either a short-circuit or an electrical overload were two suggested hypotheses to be the probable cause of the fire. In fact, the fire was a lamentable incident because the maintenance of grid was being done frequently, and the last one had just been performed some hours before the fire started.
Although nobody was hurt, the fire destroyed a collection that had been started 120 years ago and which had about 85 thousand snakes and 450 thousand arachnids (including spiders and scorpions). There were many species not described by the science yet and others rare or extinct ones.
According to fire-fighters, the temperature reached about 1200C and the fire spread quickly because the species were preserved in glasses containing alcoholic and formalin solutions. Immediately after the fire was controlled, all the live animals were removed and taken to a safe place.
“Unfortunately, it is an irreplaceable heritage to our country” said one of the Institute’s researchers.
While the fire causes are being clarified a new project of recuperation of reptile’s laboratory is being prepared.