Surrey animal shelter fire leaves 60 animals dead, extensive damage

A fire has resulted in a devastating loss for the Urban Safari Rescue Society in Surrey.

The fire broke out after a power surge and sparked flames in the building Friday night, but the fire wasn’t discovered until the following morning.

That filled the front of the building with soot and smoke, and also led to the deaths of around a fifth of the animals in the society’s care.

Urban Safari’s Pamala-Rose Combs says the fire also caused extensive damage to the building, leaving the group in a tough spot.

“We lost 60 animals plus all of the fish, except a few Beta. All of the mammals — the sugar gliders, the guinea pigs, none of those guys survived,” she explained, adding the society also lost lizards, snakes, birds, and fish.

On the burn itself, Combs says it wasn’t your typical fire.

“Basically it smoldered. So, the initial origin point, you can clearly see the tanks are melted, metal’s melted, the fire, it didn’t really burst into flames, which is why we didn’t lose more animals, but it was enough that it filled the entire area with smoke and soot.

So, if the soot didn’t get them, smoke inhalation got them,” she explained.

“We had little moments of hope yesterday when we discovered two animals we thought were gone — the pixie frog and a boa that people were attached to — survived through just, we don’t know how.”

The Surrey Fire Service says firefighters were called to the animal shelter Saturday morning, but haven’t confirmed a cause.

Now, the Urban Safari Rescue Society is facing a dire financial situation, with no facility to operate out of and no source of revenue, as the damage to the building forced Urban Safari to close indefinitely.

“There’s no place for us to run any programs, even if the animals weren’t stressed out. So we’re essentially closed for business and it costs $13,000 a month to keep the doors open,” Combs said, noting the society was just starting to recover financially from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organization has started a crowdfunding effort to try to cover some of its costs.

Combs says the one shining light in all of this, is the outpouring of donations and offers of help and support from people in the community.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $20,000 of the $50,000 goal.

“We’ve survived storms before and the reason we’ve survived storms before is because of the public,” said Combs.

In addition to money, the organization is looking for donations in the form of items, such as food, substrates, heating and UV lights, and enclosures for the surviving animals.